Jackson Free Press

JACKSON — The Hinds County Board of Supervisors this morning allocated funding for the fifth year in a row to support an alternative to detention for young girls.

The Board, unanimously and with no comment, voted to allocate an additional $60,000 to the Joyce Hope Home for Girls, described on the agenda as a "community-based alternative to detention program for at-risk female runaways ages 9-17 years."

Steve Pickett, the director of the nonprofit that manages the Joyce Hope Home for Girls, said the south Jackson program is the only one of its kind in Mississippi.

"This is an alternative to incarceration program, the only one in the state," Pickett explained. "There's been, I think, over 158 girls served, through this project."

Pickett said the Jackson Police Department, the Hinds County Sheriff's Deparment, the Mississippi Department of Health and Human Services, and the Hinds County Youth Court all refer young girls to the program. Pickett said Hope Home's purpose is to help young women avoid a trip to Henley-Young Juvenile Justice Center, which houses both boys and girls.

"The purpose of the program is to keep them out of jail," Pickett said. "That's why they would not go to Henley-Young ... they have committed no crime that deserves them being arrested, incarcerated and jailed."

Pickett said a youth-court judge in Hinds County determines whether to send a girl to Henley-Young or Hope Home.

"That's what this is: an attempt to keep children from being incarcerated," Pickett said. "They are already in a bad situation. It would traumatize them further by incarcerating them."

Pickett said authorities refer children to Hope Home in situations involving abuse, neglect or other traumatic domestic episodes, as well as runaways. "That's not a reason to get locked up in jail," Pickett said. "That's the purpose of the program, to give an alternative."

The board initially put the funding on its agenda during the last meeting, following a request from Hope Home when state funding dried up.

"The State grant through the Department of Public Safety juvenile justice block grant ended, and the county has elected to sustain the program through the year 2017," Pickett said.

The county first considered allocating over $120,000, but after discovering that the Henley-Young budget already included $60,000 for the program, the county approved a contractual agreement between the nonprofit that manages Hope Home, the Mississippi Center for Police and Sheriffs, for the next calendar year for an additional $60,000.

Email city reporter Tim Summers Jr. at [email protected]. Read the JFP's "Preventing Violence" series at jfp.ms/preventingviolence.