Mississippi Chief Justice Speaks at Luncheon

Chief Justice, Michael Randolph, was the guest speaker at today’s Rotary Club meeting. Since taking the position in 2019, Chief Randolph’s focus has been drug intervention court. Twin States News attended the meeting.

The state of Mississippi currently has 43 drug intervention courts and 22 adult felony drug intervention programs. These programs are designed to help the participants become productive citizens in the community.

“The people that work in the intervention court, they have a heart for the people to allow them to restore their lives and to resuscitate their families”, said Justice Randolph. “It is so impressive that we can come together and have an alternative program that has such great success. The success of the program makes it better, it’s like a snowball.”

There are over 6,000 participants in the intervention program. Over 4,000 of those participants are now employed, 500 have earned a G-E-D, and more than a thousand have obtained a driver’s license.

“People who graduate drug court only get back into trouble about 3% of the time. People who are in parchment get in trouble about 35% of the time, so it makes our community safer and better. It is the most successful program in the state of Mississippi.”- Chief Justice Michael Randolph

Chief Randolph has held the position of chief justice for 17 years and accommodates his success to listening to the community.

“One of the things I try to do is to figure out what people need”, explained the Chief. “One way is to come to the community like I am today and talk to people, take their questions, listen, and see what the problems are. See what we can utilize in our constitution to help people.”

To find out more about the Drug Intervention programs you can visit https://courts.ms.gov/