According to Mississippi Supreme Court Chief Justice Randolph, his career path did not run as he planned, but from listening to him at Lions Club Monday, we decided that his path was quite gratifying.
In 2004 Randoph got the call from then Governor Haley Barber, who asked if Randolph would like a seat on the Mississippi Supreme Court. He was surprised, however, to find out that the seat would only be for less than a year before he would have to hit the campaign trail. But he accepted and prevailed at election time.
Throughout his career he said he tried to avoid two types of law practice, those dealing with children and criminal law. Then all of a sudden there he was on Mississippi’s Court, waist deep in these types of legal battles.
Many lawsuits the courts were hearing at the time involved drugs and drug offenders. He described the courts as “you come in that morning, there is a jury seletion, then you are found guilty and by that afternoon you are heading to Parchman. Swift and judicious.”
Then the legislature enhanced the penalties if drugs were involved in a crime, thinking that would help solve the problem. It didn’t. It funneled more offenders into the system, and that is where people like Judge Leslie Southwick got involved and established drug courts. This program was effective in that instead of incarcerating minor offenders it allowed the offenders the opportunity to enter the five year program and not become a drain on society to the tune of over $19,000 each per year.
The requirements of the program are to be drug tested and meet with court officials weekly and to be gainfully employed. The projected savings to taxpayers from the program is almost $72 million in inmate housing and care. Fines collected for the counties will be almost $3 million, and court fees for the court will be almost $4 million. Randolph estimated the savings to the state since 2012 at $475 million.
Randolph is now proposing that the state set aside additional funding to establish new courts. This will include eight new mental health courts, eight new veterans’ courts and three additional drug courts. The additions could reduce the incarceration rate and save an additional $71 million. But there is a problem of retaining judges, partly because of rate of pay. According to Randolph, the workload has increased drastically but pay has remained the same since 2012.
Randolph says he is convinced that the recidivism rate will drop if these new courts are approved.
