Lowndes County officials are trying to determine how to enforce court-ordered community service.
Lowndes County Justice Court has had issues with violators volunteering for a work program to pay off fines and then not showing up to work.
Supervisors discussed the issue during the Lowndes County Board of Supervisors meeting on Wednesday to determine how to address the problem.
In a separate interview with The Dispatch, Justice Court Judge Ron Cooke said it’s not an overwhelmingly common problem, but it happens more often than it should.
The work program is available, typically, for people who don’t have jobs as an option to pay off justice court fines. Participants earn $58 per day picking up trash from county roads to go toward their fine.
Cooke said in a scenario where 100 people who get convicted or plead guilty in justice court, 90 opt to pay the fine up front or over time via a payment plan. The remaining 10 enter the work program, and of those, about half might not show up for work.
For those who don’t show up, Cooke said judges issue show cause notices, which require a person to appear before the court and explain why they didn’t show up for the work program. If they fail to appear, a judge then issues a contempt of court warrant for their arrest.
However, it can be hard to find people and bring them to court.
“The problem is they’re not showing up for the work program, but I’m not going to go out and hunt you down,” he said. “It’s not the chain gang anymore.”
Justice Court Judge Peggy Phillips said she thinks the program is a good option for some people. She said the issue of people showing up isn’t a new one in the 20 or so years the county has used it.
“Some are very faithful,” Phillips said. “We have a little lady from Noxubee County who drives every day here to work and doesn’t miss. But you have people locally that will not show up, so we give a show cause to get them back in. They won’t even come for the show cause, and then we have to issue the warrant.”
County concerns
Board of Supervisors President Harry Sanders said he wants to see the court be more proactive with warrants for people who don’t show up for the work program.
The county has two vans and trailers, with two workers who go to the court each morning to pick up work program participants.
“What happens is these two vans go down to the justice court to get the people who are supposed to report to work, and nobody’s there,” Sanders said.
Sanders said he, District 2 Supervisor Bill Brigham, County Administrator Ralph Billingsley and Board Attorney Tim Hudson met with Cooke and Phillips about two months ago to express the desire for a firmer hand in getting people to show up.
He said he wants judges to issue contempt of court warrants the day after someone misses work duty but said that isn’t happening. Sanders attributed it to bureaucracy and judges “not wanting to do their d*** job.”
Phillips told the Dispatch it can be difficult to bring people into court even once a warrant is issued.
“We sentence, but we can’t go out and find these people,” Phillips said. “If the constable goes out, he gets a fee, but he doesn’t get paid mileage. They’re not going to go back and forth five or six times looking for someone because it’s just not feasible for them.”
Cooke also pointed out there are sometimes reasons why people don’t show up.
“The supervisors want to put them in jail — well you don’t put them in jail right away,” Cooke said. “You’ve got to find out — (someone) might have been in the hospital (or) might have lost his job. Something might have happened to where you can’t do the work program.”
Justice Court Judge Chris Hemphill noted that it’s important for people who have had something happen or have found employment since being placed in the work program to contact the court.
“If they don’t show up at the work program and they also don’t come back to court to make arrangements for payment, we don’t know if they’re just saying, ‘Forget you, we’re not complying,'” Hemphill said. “That may not be their thought process, but we don’t have any choice but to think that because they’re not communicating with us.”
The judges also indicated that a dedicated warrant officer, which some courts have, would likely help with bringing violators in. Cooke said constables only get paid if they serve a warrant, which can limit how often they might go to someone’s home. A warrant officer who is paid regardless would alleviate that concern.
Sanders said he isn’t opposed to hiring a warrant officer. But he said he wants to see more warrants being issued, faster.
“If we have to hire a warrant officer to go arrest people, we’ll do it,” he said. “We told them that’s what we’d do. But we’re not going to hire (someone) to summon these people when no summons have been issued.
“In the meantime, the litter is piling up because there’s not enough pride between county residents to not throw litter out on the d*** roads,” he added. “It’s terrible.”
Alex Holloway was formerly a reporter with The Dispatch.
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