Bill Text: MS HB577 | 2010 | Regular Session | Introduced
Bill Title: Youth court records; provide certain penalty for individuals who fraudently access or disclose such records.
Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Democrat 1-0)
Status: (Failed) 2010-02-02 - Died In Committee [HB577 Detail]
Download: Mississippi-2010-HB577-Introduced.html
MISSISSIPPI LEGISLATURE
2010 Regular Session
To: Judiciary A
By: Representative Flaggs
House Bill 577
AN ACT TO AMEND SECTIONS 43-21-251, 43-21-255, 43-21-257, 43-21-259 AND 43-21-261, MISSISSIPPI CODE OF 1972, TO PROVIDE PENALTIES FOR ANY INDIVIDUAL WHO FRAUDULENTLY ACCESSES OR DISCLOSES CONFIDENTIAL RECORDS PERTAINING TO CHILDREN INVOLVED IN YOUTH COURT PROCEEDINGS; AND FOR RELATED PURPOSES.
BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF MISSISSIPPI:
SECTION 1. Section 43-21-251, Mississippi Code of 1972, is amended as follows:
43-21-251. (1) The court records of the youth court shall include:
(a) A general docket in which the clerk of the youth court shall enter the names of the parties in each cause, the date of filing the petition, any other pleadings, all other papers in the cause, issuance and return of process, and a reference by the minute book and page to all orders made therein. The general docket shall be duly indexed in the alphabetical order of the names of the parties.
(b) All the papers and pleadings filed in a cause. The papers in every cause shall be marked with the style and number of the cause and the date when filed. All the papers filed in a cause shall be kept in the same file, and all the files shall be kept in numerical order.
(c) All social records of a youth court, which shall include all intake records, social summaries, medical examinations, mental health examinations, transfer studies and all other information obtained and prepared in the discharge of official duty for the youth court.
(i) A "social summary" is an investigation of the personal and family history and the environment of a child who is the subject of a youth court cause. The social summary should describe all reasonable appropriate alternative dispositions. The social summary should contain a specific plan for the care and assistance to the child with a detailed explanation showing the necessity for the proposed plan of disposition.
(ii) A "medical examination" is an examination by a physician of a child who is the subject of a youth court cause or of his parent. The youth court may order a medical examination at any time after the intake unit has received a written complaint. Whenever possible, a medical examination shall be conducted on an outpatient basis. A medical examination of a parent of the child who is the subject of the cause shall not be ordered unless the physical or mental ability of the parent to care for the child is a relevant issue in the particular cause and the parent to be examined consents to the examination.
(iii) A "mental health examination" is an examination by a psychiatrist or psychologist of a child who is the subject of a youth court cause or of his parent. The youth court may order a mental health examination at any time after the intake unit has received a written complaint. Whenever possible, a mental health examination shall be conducted on an outpatient basis. A mental health examination of a parent of the child who is the subject of a cause shall not be ordered unless the physical or mental ability of the parent to care for the child is a relevant issue in the particular cause and the parent to be examined consents to the examination.
(iv) A "transfer study" is a social summary which addresses the factors set forth in Section 43-21-157(5). A transfer study shall not be admissible evidence nor shall it be considered by the court at any adjudicatory hearing. It shall be admissible evidence at a transfer or disposition hearing.
(d) A minute book in which the clerk shall record all the orders of the youth court.
(e) Proceedings of the youth court and evidence.
(f) All information obtained by the youth court from the Administrative Office of Courts pursuant to a request under Section 43-21-261(15).
(2) The records of the youth court and the contents thereof shall be kept confidential and shall not be disclosed except as provided in Section 43-21-261. Any person who fraudulently accesses or discloses court records involving children, as described in this section, shall be guilty of a misdemeanor and, upon conviction, shall be punished by a fine of not more than One Thousand Dollars ($1,000.00).
(3) The court records of the youth court may be kept on computer in the manner provided for storing circuit court records and dockets as provided in Section 9-7-171.
SECTION 2. Section 43-21-255, Mississippi Code of 1972, is amended as follows:
43-21-255. (1) Except as otherwise provided by this section, all records involving children made and retained by law enforcement officers and agencies or by the youth court prosecutor and the contents thereof shall be kept confidential and shall not be disclosed except as provided in Section 43-21-261. Any person who fraudulently accesses or discloses law enforcement records pertaining to children, as described in this section, shall be guilty of a misdemeanor and, upon conviction, shall be punished by a fine of not more than One Thousand Dollars ($1,000.00).
(2) A child in the jurisdiction of the youth court and who has been taken into custody for an act, which if committed by an adult would be considered a felony or offenses involving possession or use of a dangerous weapon or any firearm, may be photographed or fingerprinted or both. Any law enforcement agency taking such photographs or fingerprints shall immediately report the existence and location of the photographs and fingerprints to the youth court. Copies of fingerprints known to be those of a child shall be maintained on a local basis only. Such copies of fingerprints may be forwarded to another local, state or federal bureau of criminal identification or regional depository for identification purposes only. Such copies of fingerprints shall be returned promptly and shall not be maintained by such agencies.
(3) Any law enforcement record involving children who have been taken into custody for an act, which if committed by an adult would be considered a felony and/or offenses involving possession or use of a dangerous weapon including photographs and fingerprints, may be released to a law enforcement agency supported by public funds, youth court officials and appropriate school officials without a court order under Section 43-21-261. Law enforcement records shall be released to youth court officials and to appropriate school officials upon written request. Except as provided in subsection (4) of this section, any law enforcement agency releasing such records of children in the jurisdiction of the youth court shall immediately report the release and location of the records to the youth court. The law enforcement agencies, youth court officials and school officials receiving such records are prohibited from using the photographs and fingerprints for any purpose other than for criminal law enforcement and juvenile law enforcement. Each law enforcement officer or employee, each youth court official or employee and each school official or employee receiving the records shall submit to the sender a signed statement acknowledging his or her duty to maintain the confidentiality of the records. In no instance shall the fact that such records of children in the jurisdiction of the youth court exist be conveyed to any private individual, firm, association or corporation or to any public or quasi-public agency the duties of which do not include criminal law enforcement or juvenile law enforcement.
(4) When a child's driver's license is suspended for refusal to take a test provided under the Mississippi Implied Consent Law, the law enforcement agency shall report such refusal, without a court order under Section 43-21-261, to the Commissioner of Public Safety in the same manner as such suspensions are reported in cases involving adults.
(5) All records involving a child convicted as an adult or who has been twice adjudicated delinquent for a sex offense as defined by Section 45-33-23, Mississippi Code of 1972, shall be public and shall not be kept confidential.
SECTION 3. Section 43-21-257, Mississippi Code of 1972, is amended as follows:
43-21-257. (1) Unless otherwise provided in this section, any record involving children, including valid and invalid complaints, and the contents thereof maintained by the Department of Human Services, or any other state agency, shall be kept confidential and shall not be disclosed except as provided in Section 43-21-261. Any person who fraudulently accesses or discloses agency records pertaining to children, as described in this section, shall be guilty of a misdemeanor and, upon conviction, shall be punished by a fine of not more than One Thousand Dollars ($1,000.00).
(2) The Office of Youth Services shall maintain a state central registry containing the number and disposition of all cases together with such other useful information regarding those cases as may be requested and is obtainable from the records of the youth court. The Office of Youth Services shall annually publish a statistical record of the number and disposition of all cases, but the names or identity of any children shall not be disclosed in the reports or records. The Office of Youth Services shall adopt such rules as may be necessary to carry out this subsection. The central registry files and the contents thereof shall be confidential and shall not be open to public inspection. Any person who discloses or encourages the disclosure of any record involving children from the central registry shall be subject to the penalty in Section 43-21-267. The youth court shall furnish, upon forms provided by the Office of Youth Services, the necessary information, and these completed forms shall be forwarded to the Office of Youth Services.
(3) The Department of Human Services shall maintain a state central registry on neglect and abuse cases containing (a) the name, address and age of each child, (b) the nature of the harm reported, (c) the name and address of the person responsible for the care of the child, and (d) the name and address of the substantiated perpetrator of the harm reported. "Substantiated perpetrator" shall be defined as an individual who has committed an act(s) of sexual abuse or physical abuse that would otherwise be deemed as a felony or any child neglect that would be deemed as a threat to life, as determined upon investigation by the Office of Family and Children's Services. "Substantiation" for the purposes of the Mississippi Department of Human Services Central Registry shall require a criminal conviction or an adjudication by a youth court judge or court of competent jurisdiction, ordering that the name of the perpetrator be listed on the central registry, pending due process. The Department of Human Services shall adopt such rules and administrative procedures, especially those procedures to afford due process to individuals who have been named as substantiated perpetrators before the release of their name from the central registry, as may be necessary to carry out this subsection. The central registry shall be confidential and shall not be open to public inspection. Any person who discloses or encourages the disclosure of any record involving children from the central registry without following the rules and administrative procedures of the department shall be subject to the penalty in Section 43-21-267. The Department of Human Services and its employees are exempt from any civil liability as a result of any action taken pursuant to the compilation and/or release of information on the central registry under this section and any other applicable section of the code, unless determined that an employee has willfully and maliciously violated the rules and administrative procedures of the department, pertaining to the central registry or any section of this code. If an employee is determined to have willfully and maliciously performed such a violation, said employee shall not be exempt from civil liability in this regard.
(4) The Mississippi State Department of Health may release the findings of investigations into allegations of abuse within licensed day care centers made under the provisions of Section 43-21-353(8) to any parent of a child who is enrolled in the day care center at the time of the alleged abuse or at the time the request for information is made. The findings of any such investigation may also be released to parents who are considering placing children in the day care center. No information concerning those investigations may contain the names or identifying information of individual children.
The Department of Health shall not be held civilly liable for the release of information on any findings, recommendations or actions taken pursuant to investigations of abuse that have been conducted under Section 43-21-353(8).
SECTION 4. Section 43-21-259, Mississippi Code of 1972, is amended as follows:
43-21-259. All other records involving children and the contents thereof shall be kept confidential and shall not be disclosed except as provided in section 43-21-261. Any person who fraudulently accesses or discloses records pertaining to children, as described in this section, shall be guilty of a misdemeanor and, upon conviction, shall be punished by a fine of not more than One Thousand Dollars ($1,000.00).
SECTION 5. Section 43-21-261, Mississippi Code of 1972, is amended as follows:
43-21-261. (1) Except as otherwise provided in this section, records involving children shall not be disclosed, other than to necessary staff of the youth court, except pursuant to an order of the youth court specifying the person or persons to whom the records may be disclosed, the extent of the records which may be disclosed and the purpose of the disclosure. Such court orders for disclosure shall be limited to those instances in which the youth court concludes, in its discretion, that disclosure is required for the best interests of the child, the public safety or the functioning of the youth court and then only to the following persons:
(a) The judge of another youth court or member of another youth court staff;
(b) The court of the parties in a child custody or adoption cause in another court;
(c) A judge of any other court or members of another court staff;
(d) Representatives of a public or private agency providing supervision or having custody of the child under order of the youth court;
(e) Any person engaged in a bona fide research purpose, provided that no information identifying the subject of the records shall be made available to the researcher unless it is absolutely essential to the research purpose and the judge gives prior written approval, and the child, through his or her representative, gives permission to release the information;
(f) The Mississippi Department of Employment Security, or its duly authorized representatives, for the purpose of a child's enrollment into the Job Corps Training Program as authorized by Title IV of the Comprehensive Employment Training Act of 1973 (29 USCS Section 923 et seq.). However, no records, reports, investigations or information derived therefrom pertaining to child abuse or neglect shall be disclosed; and
(g) To any person pursuant to a finding by a judge of the youth court of compelling circumstances affecting the health or safety of a child and that such disclosure is in the best interests of the child.
Law enforcement agencies may disclose information to the public concerning the taking of a child into custody for the commission of a delinquent act without the necessity of an order from the youth court. The information released shall not identify the child or his address unless the information involves a child convicted as an adult.
(2) Any records involving children which are disclosed under an order of the youth court or pursuant to the terms of this section and the contents thereof shall be kept confidential by the person or agency to whom the record is disclosed unless otherwise provided in the order. Any further disclosure of any records involving children shall be made only under an order of the youth court as provided in this section.
(3) Upon request, the parent, guardian or custodian of the child who is the subject of a youth court cause or any attorney for such parent, guardian or custodian, shall have the right to inspect any record, report or investigation which is to be considered by the youth court at a hearing, except that the identity of the reporter shall not be released, nor the name of any other person where the person or agency making the information available finds that disclosure of the information would be likely to endanger the life or safety of such person.
(4) Upon request, the child who is the subject of a youth court cause shall have the right to have his counsel inspect and copy any record, report or investigation which is filed with the youth court or which is to be considered by the youth court at a hearing.
(5) (a) The youth court prosecutor or prosecutors, the county attorney, the district attorney, the youth court defender or defenders, or any attorney representing a child shall have the right to inspect and copy any law enforcement record involving children.
(b) The Department of Human Services shall disclose to a county prosecuting attorney or district attorney any and all records resulting from an investigation into suspected child abuse or neglect when the case has been referred by the Department of Human Services to the county prosecuting attorney or district attorney for criminal prosecution.
(c) Agency records made confidential under the provisions of this section may be disclosed to a court of competent jurisdiction.
(d) Records involving children shall be disclosed to the Division of Victim Compensation of the Office of the Attorney General upon the division's request without order of the youth court for purposes of determination of eligibility for victim compensation benefits.
(6) Information concerning an investigation into a report of child abuse or child neglect may be disclosed by the Department of Human Services without order of the youth court to any attorney, physician, dentist, intern, resident, nurse, psychologist, social worker, family protection worker, family protection specialist, child caregiver, minister, law enforcement officer, public or private school employee making that report pursuant to Section 43-21-353(1) if the reporter has a continuing professional relationship with the child and a need for such information in order to protect or treat the child.
(7) Information concerning an investigation into a report of child abuse or child neglect may be disclosed without further order of the youth court to any interagency child abuse task force established in any county or municipality by order of the youth court of that county or municipality.
(8) Names and addresses of juveniles twice adjudicated as delinquent for an act which would be a felony if committed by an adult or for the unlawful possession of a firearm shall not be held confidential and shall be made available to the public.
(9) Names and addresses of juveniles adjudicated as delinquent for murder, manslaughter, burglary, arson, armed robbery, aggravated assault, any sex offense as defined in Section 45-33-23, for any violation of Section 41-29-139(a)(1) or for any violation of Section 63-11-30, shall not be held confidential and shall be made available to the public.
(10) The judges of the circuit and county courts, and presentence investigators for the circuit courts, as provided in Section 47-7-9, shall have the right to inspect any youth court records of a person convicted of a crime for sentencing purposes only.
(11) The victim of an offense committed by a child who is the subject of a youth court cause shall have the right to be informed of the child's disposition by the youth court.
(12) A classification hearing officer of the State Department of Corrections, as provided in Section 47-5-103, shall have the right to inspect any youth court records, excluding abuse and neglect records, of any offender in the custody of the department who as a child or minor was a juvenile offender or was the subject of a youth court cause of action, and the State Parole Board, as provided in Section 47-7-17, shall have the right to inspect such records when the offender becomes eligible for parole.
(13) The youth court shall notify the Department of Public Safety of the name, and any other identifying information such department may require, of any child who is adjudicated delinquent as a result of a violation of the Uniform Controlled Substances Law.
(14) The Administrative Office of Courts shall have the right to inspect any youth court records in order that the number of youthful offenders, abused, neglected, truant and dependent children, as well as children in need of special care and children in need of supervision, may be tracked with specificity through the youth court and adult justice system, and to utilize tracking forms for such purpose.
(15) Upon a request by a youth court, the Administrative Office of Courts shall disclose all information at its disposal concerning any previous youth court intakes alleging that a child was a delinquent child, child in need of supervision, child in need of special care, truant child, abused child or neglected child, as well as any previous youth court adjudications for the same and all dispositional information concerning a child who at the time of such request comes under the jurisdiction of the youth court making such request.
(16) In every case where an abuse or neglect allegation has been made, the confidentiality provisions of this section shall not apply to prohibit access to a child's records by any state regulatory agency, any state or local prosecutorial agency or law enforcement agency; however, no identifying information concerning the child in question may be released to the public by such agency except as otherwise provided herein.
(17) In every case where there is any indication or suggestion of either abuse or neglect and a child's physical condition is medically labeled as medically "serious" or "critical" or a child dies, the confidentiality provisions of this section shall not apply. In cases of child deaths, the following information may be released by the Mississippi Department of Human Services: (a) child's name; (b) address or location; (c) verification from the Department of Human Services of case status (no case or involvement, case exists, open or active case, case closed); (d) if a case exists, the type of report or case (physical abuse, neglect, etc.), date of intake(s) and investigation(s), and case disposition (substantiated or unsubstantiated). Notwithstanding the aforesaid, the confidentiality provisions of this section shall continue if there is a pending or planned investigation by any local, state or federal governmental agency or institution.
(18) Any member of a foster care review board designated by the Department of Human Services shall have the right to inspect youth court records relating to the abuse, neglect or child in need of supervision cases assigned to such member for review.
(19) Information concerning an investigation into a report of child abuse or child neglect may be disclosed without further order of the youth court in any administrative or due process hearing held, pursuant to Section 43-21-257, by the Department of Human Services for individuals whose names will be placed on the central registry as substantiated perpetrators.
(20) Any person who fraudulently accesses or discloses records pertaining to children, as described in this section, shall be guilty of a misdemeanor and, upon conviction, shall be punished by a fine of not more than One Thousand Dollars ($1,000.00).
SECTION 6. This act shall take effect and be in force from and after July 1, 2010.
