Members of Harrison County’s Blue Ribbon Committee on child protection discussed gaps in the child-welfare system that they say contributed to the death of an infant referred to at the meeting as "Baby DJ," urged a narrow change to state law about newborn drug tests, and outlined small, agency-level fixes while calling for larger, statewide reforms.

The committee — established by the Harrison County Board of Supervisors — met with Senator Bryce Wiggins, chairman of the Senate Judiciary A Committee, who described both short-term fixes the panel seeks and the larger, systemic changes the legislature is considering. "The reason that got amended back in the day was because throughout the state of Mississippi, children were being taken from parents, simply because of marijuana," Wiggins said, explaining why the 2019 amendment removed marijuana as a sole basis for removal but did not intend to treat harder drugs the same way.

The discussion focused on a statute cited in the committee packet as Mississippi Code section 43-21-301 and on local practice following the case the speakers call Baby DJ, in which hospital staff said they reported concerns to Child Protective Services and were unable to locate the infant or the family before the child later arrived at the hospital and was pronounced dead. "He was known to CPS. The hospital had put in two separate concerns to CPS, about possible abuse and neglect ... the baby turned up at 4 months to our ER and was pronounced dead," Dr. Caldwell said.

Why it matters: Committee members and hospital staff said the county continues to have more child-protection reports than many places and has historically led the state for neglect and abuse indicators. Committee members argued that narrow statutory language and uneven interpretation by 82 separate youth courts across Mississippi have produced inconsistent responses and left newborns with substance exposures at risk of not receiving timely interventions.

What committee members want now

- Narrow statutory language: The committee is asking that changes to the statute explicitly preserve marijuana’s different treatment while making clear that a newborn or a parent testing positive for fentanyl, methamphetamine, cocaine or other scheduled controlled substances "can be the sole basis for the department to take the newborn into protective custody" until investigators can determine the child’s immediate safety. As presented in the packet, the proposed wording would limit the "shall not be based solely" protection to marijuana and not to other controlled substances.

- Better local protocols and communication: Hospital staff described new, specific operational improvements since the committee formed. Melissa, manager of care coordination for Memorial Hospital, said the hospital now has an on-call list and direct phone contact for CPS after hours and weekly meetings with CPS and daily NICU case conferences with social workers to discuss high-risk discharges. "Now we have an on call list ... We have phone numbers. We can get a direct contact day or night with somebody from CPS for emergency concerns," Melissa said.

- Short-term checkpoints at hospital discharge: Committee members and clinicians suggested practical measures that do not require new law, such as using a sober family member to supervise care at discharge, verifying safety plans with the hospital before a newborn leaves, and better follow-up so that staff know whether promised services and supports are actually delivered.

Broader reforms — the "band aid" vs. the system fix

Senator Wiggins framed the committee’s requests as important immediate steps, but emphasized the need for systemic reform. He told the group that the 2019 amendment had aimed to avoid taking children from families solely because of poverty or a positive marijuana test and that courts’ variable interpretations across 82 youth courts led to inconsistent outcomes. "You put it out there and then people start complaining about the cost and other stuff," Wiggins said, urging the committee to pair immediate fixes with a push for long-term changes such as a statewide county-court youth system and replacement of the state’s aging myKids case-management system.

Wiggins said an audit of the myKids system recommended a modernized, shared platform to allow multidisciplinary stakeholders — CPS, youth court, hospitals, the attorney general’s office, law enforcement and others — to share information in appropriate cases. He encouraged Harrison County to offer itself as a possible pilot site. "All the stakeholders here that you're talking about, CPS, youth court, DHS. It's all one system that goes right now. myKids is walled off," Wiggins said.

Local data and current practice

Memorial Hospital presented case-volume numbers to the committee. Melissa reported 18 recorded cases in September and 141 CPS reports for the year, with a five-year annual average of about 187.5 reports. Hospital staff said they are increasingly receiving safety plans at time of discharge, which allow clinicians to see what CPS expects the family to do. But staff also said they still lack reliable ways to confirm that safety plans are carried out after discharge.

Discussion vs. decisions

The meeting was primarily discussion-focused: committee members debated the legal language they want clarified, clinicians described operational improvements and the senator outlined legislative and systemic options. No formal change to state law was made at the meeting. The committee did, however, record two routine procedural votes: the group approved acceptance of the committee’s Sept. 19 minutes and later approved a closing motion. Both motions passed by voice vote; no roll-call tallies were recorded in the transcript.

Quotes from participants

- Senator Bryce Wiggins, chairman, Senate Judiciary A Committee: "The reason that got amended back in the day was because throughout the state of Mississippi, children were being taken from parents, simply because of marijuana."

- Dr. Caldwell, Blue Ribbon Committee member: "He was known to CPS. The hospital had put in two separate concerns to CPS, about possible abuse and neglect ... the baby turned up at 4 months to our ER and was pronounced dead."

- Melissa, manager of care coordination, Memorial Hospital: "Now we have an on call list ... We have phone numbers. We can get a direct contact day or night with somebody from CPS for emergency concerns."

Next steps and meeting schedule

Committee members asked the senator and legislative contacts to consider a narrowly worded statutory amendment and to continue coordinating on myKids and youth-court uniformity work. The committee scheduled its next meeting for the 20th (the packet notes that the date falls just before the Thanksgiving break). The group also requested further information from the administrative offices that produced the myKids audit and from CPS leadership about how safety-plan follow-up will be documented and shared with hospital partners.

The meeting record shows the Blue Ribbon Committee focused on short-term operational changes (on-call contacts, safety-plan sharing and discharge checkpoints) while urging the legislature and courts to work toward uniform statewide practices in youth court and a shared technology platform for child-protection cases. The members described those short-term changes as critical to preventing another case like Baby DJ while larger reforms proceed.