NATCHEZ — Adams County is looking at almost completely funding the Court Appointed Special Advocate program for the youth court for another year because the grants that once gave the program its lifeblood have dried up.

County Administrator Joe Murray said that, with the exception of a $5,000 earmark from the United Way that is divided into quarterly payments of $1,250, the county is looking at paying $40,000 annually for the program.

The CASA program, which appoints an advocate for children in abuse and neglect cases, was in the past funded by grants, Youth Court Judge John Hudson said.

“We knew one day those grants would not come anymore, and that responsibility would shift to the county,” Hudson said. “That shift came last year.

“Most CASA grants have gone away, not just in Adams County.”

Regardless of its funding, the judge said Mississippi law requires the court to appoint a guardian to represent a child in abuse and neglect cases.

“We are not asking for funding of an extra program for kids, we are asking for funding for a mandatory program under Mississippi law,” Hudson said.

The supervisors have previously requested quarterly reports from the CASA program but have not received them, Murray said.

Both Hudson and CASA Director Angela James said they were unaware of such requests. James said she already does quarterly requests for the national and state CASA offices.

Adams County CASA had 227 abuse or neglect cases in 2010, and 171 cases in 2011, James said.

When the supervisors asked James if it would be possible for CASA to have more fundraisers, James said her duties only allow her time to do one fundraiser a year.

“I am one person, and I do the job of three or four,” James said. “Fundraising is a huge responsibility, but with the home visits, investigations, doctor visits, I am in court three days a week — if I try to do more than one fundraiser, it is overwhelming. We don’t have the staff and the manpower that they have in some places.”

CASA in Adams County works with volunteers, Hudson said, and appointing lawyers as the guardian to each case as other counties do would cost the county an additional $317,000 a year.

“This person is required to make an independent recommendation to the court in light of what they think is the best interest of the child,” Hudson said.

“This (funding) is to run the program, not the per case charge. Those are volunteers, but the program itself has got to have the infrastructure to train and to follow and make the court reports that are required in that situation.”

The supervisors also addressed the cost efficiency of running the Adams County Juvenile Justice Detention Center with Hudson, though they did not discuss budget specifics.

Hudson said Detention Center Administrator Glen Arnold recently retired, and Sheriff Chuck Mayfield said he is interested in taking over the juvenile center. Mayfield was not present at Wednesday’s meeting, and Hudson said he wanted the sheriff to be present for the budget discussion so Mayfield could give input.

The judge also said he would like to see a breakdown of detention center costs for the last year so he could address specific cost concerns.

The supervisors asked Hudson why the detention center is not housing more juveniles, and he said it was a combination of fewer juveniles in the area and the use of detention alternatives. If possible, only juveniles that are charged with crimes so serious they are considered a threat to public safety are housed at the detention center, Hudson said.

“If we can put them on house arrest, we would rather do that than put them behind bars,” he said. “You want to de-emphasize the jail mentality of kids, because you don’t want them to graduate from the youth system to the adult system.”

Sending juvenile offenders to other facilities also creates problems, Hudson said.

“When you send a kid to a distant detention facility and you put them there for 30 days, they have learned and they import into your community the ills of the community you sent them to,” he said.

The county would have to factor in the cost of paying to house the juvenile offender, transporting them and even transporting their family, Hudson said.

“By law, children have a right to be visited every three days, and if we take the children out of our community, then that responsibility is going to fall on us,” he said.

The Adams County center also houses juveniles from all of the surrounding counties except Franklin County, but Hudson said having the sheriff take over the detention center might change that.

“The sheriff already has a connection to Franklin County, they already send us their adult prisoners,” Hudson said. “It doesn’t make any sense why they wouldn’t send their kids to us.”

“With the sheriff taking over, he can bring that ability to attract from other law enforcement in the area. We have one of the best facilities in the state.”

Hudson also told the supervisors he was willing to start a dialogue with officials on the Louisiana side of the river about housing Concordia Parish juveniles.

Such a change would require legislation on both sides of the river, he said.

The supervisors did not take any budget action Wednesday.