NATCHEZ — In Adams County, juvenile justice is about finding the right fit.

With several programs operating for offenders, Youth Court Judge John Hudson said most of the time he can find the place for each young person who appears before him.

Many times the best option is regular probation that requires the offender to meet with a counselor on a regular basis, maintain good behavior and learn from what he or she did wrong.

“Most of the people we seen in juvenile justice, we only see once,” he said. “That is the way we like to see it happen.”

But that is not always the way it happens. Sometimes youth need a little more attention and a little more guidance to find the right path in life.

In those cases, Hudson said the Adolescent Offender Program and Youth Drug Court are options, depending on the individual circumstances.

The Adolescent Offender Program began in Adams County in 1995 and was one of the first five in the state of Mississippi.

It is a three-phase program.

The first phase is an intensive treatment phase with mental health evaluations and counseling, character education courses and behavior counseling. Those enrolled in AOP meet every day after school for approximately two hours each day.

Participants are bussed from school to the AOP classes and from AOP classes home.

If AOP participants stay in good standing for 90 days they are passed to phase II of the program.

“We keep a check on them and make sure they are doing what they need to do,” Hudson said. “If they mess up, they have to go back to the beginning of whatever phase they are in and do it all over again.”

Phase II is structured much the same way but shifts a greater amount of responsibility to the juveniles. The juveniles are still required to attend AOP classes but not as often.

Hudson said they go from meeting every day to just a few times a week, but all the checks stay in place.

“We are still very much involved in their lives during phase II,” he said.

With the successful completion of phase II, Hudson said AOP participants are shifted to the third phase, a wait and see phase of sorts.

Hudson said the juveniles are given approximately 60 to 70 days to prove they have reformed. After completing all three phases, participants graduate from AOP.

Hudson said at graduation the pride is evident on the juveniles’ faces.

“For some of these people this is the first thing they have accomplished,” he said. “They have been taken out of a situation of hopelessness and given a feeling of hopefulness.”

Approximately 55 to 70 participants are enrolled in AOP at any given time.

For youth drug offenses, offenders are likely to be ordered to complete the youth drug court program, Hudson said.

In Youth Drug Court, there are four 90-day phases.

Participants receive mental health treatment, substance abuse counseling and character education. Those offenders meet one-on-one with counselors and also have group support meetings on a regular basis. Parents are also required to attend educational sessions.

Hudson said the biggest component of the drug court program is the accountability process. Drug court participants appear in court every other week for a status report.

Before that hearing, Hudson said the entire drug court staff meets together to evaluate everyone scheduled to appear.

“We are able to formulate an individual response to either good behavior or bad behavior based on what we know about these kids,” Hudson said.

Drug court has three focuses, sobriety, education and behavior.

When entering the drug court program, each person is assigned a color and they must call a phone number each night to see if their color has been chosen for drug testing.

If the participant is a no-show, a positive test is automatically recorded against them.

Counselors also keep a close check on the participants’ school performance, Hudson said. Hudson said the counselors in drug court communicate regularly with teachers, principals and parents to track the educational progress.

Some are even enrolled in a GED program that meets each day at the juvenile justice center, where attendance is mandatory.

Hudson said education is a vital spoke in the wheel, because it gives the participants something tangible to elevate their status in life.

Third, participants must be good citizens in their community, at home and in school to complete the drug court program.

One aspect of that is obeying a curfew set by the court. The court has curfew checkers who call individuals to make sure they are home by curfew. Habitual curfew breakers are fitted with an anklet that records when they have violated curfew.

“This is an intense supervisory program,” Hudson said. “Youth need to know someone is watching over their shoulder.”

The program just received a grant that provides GPS trackers in ankle bracelets that not only record when someone leaves the house after curfew but also can tell court officials where they are.

“When we get this up and running, we will be able to see where they are and dispatch a deputy to pick them up,” Hudson said. “It is just one more tool, we will have to effect change in these young people’s lives.”

The court also operates a juvenile detention facility for those who are unable to be rehabilitated in an outside program.

The program provides daily classroom instruction, one-on-one and group counseling provided by Southwest Mississippi Mental Health Services, recreation and visitation.

Hudson said keeping offenders at home, in their community, is key in their rehabilitation process.

“What we strive to do is make a connection between these kids and the community,” he said. “If we can connect them with the community, plug them in to where they live, they are less likely to show up in my court, or someone else’s court again.”