While she may handle everything from civil matters to the county’s bad check docket, Lowndes County Court Judge Allison Kizer said she spends most of her time in the courtroom handling youth court cases, primarily cases of abuse and neglect.
“My job is hard, but I’m thankful I have it,” Kizer told the Exchange Club of Columbus on Wednesday at Lion Hills Center. “And I hope I’m doing the best that I can. And I tell my children that. Not my children, the children that come in. I feel like they’re mine.”
Kizer told The Dispatch that as of Monday, 190 children were in the custody of Lowndes County Child Protection Services. In January 2023, she said, there were 144 in custody, though she called this a “constantly changing number.”
In 99% of her cases with the county’s youth court, Kizer said, the goal is reunification. But if removal has to happen, she said, she tries to put the child with someone familiar if possible.
“Any removal is traumatic for a child,” Kizer said. “So we try not to do it. Or we try to put them in grandma’s house, or an aunt’s house, or put grandma in the home so we don’t have to disrupt the child’s life.”
Kizer said she tries to review cases involving young children every 30 days, to provide stability for those children as quickly as possible, either with a foster parent or a relative.
Kizer said she sees children of every socioeconomic background come through her courtroom, but there are a few factors she sees in her cases more often.
“I tell people that primarily I have a job because of drug use, lack of education and poverty,” Kizer said. “There are outright cases of abuse and they are out there, but mostly what petitions are filed are neglect. And drugs … I don’t know the percentages of every case, but I feel like every case I open now has some drug component to it.”
In cases of drug use, Kizer said, she often requires drug treatment for both parents and children, regular drug screenings and counseling and treatment for all parties involved. Kizer said the drug she sees most often in her courtroom is meth.
“We test our children that I take into custody now, if the parents are drug users, because you’d be amazed at how many children test positive for meth,” Kizer said. “Not that the parents have given it to them, but you think about a three year old with it on the coffee table, or mom’s got it on her hands. And so, it might be a low level, but you’ve got a positive meth screen for a three month old.”
Currently, Kizer said, she is trying to get the county to switch from a 10-panel drug screening test to a 19-panel drug screening test, testing for a wider variety of drugs than was previously possible.
Still, Kizer said, lack of resources in both the mental health field and drug treatment throughout the state have impacted her ability to help those that come through her courtroom.
“Resources are a big deal for the state of Mississippi,” Kizer said. “Mental health is atrocious in the state of Mississippi. And it’s not just for adults. Children — drug treatment for children is nonexistent.”
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