AOC urges legislative funding for new CCID court, youth-court intake staff and court-reporter pay

An Administrative Office of the Courts (AOC) representative told the Appropriations Committee that the judiciary will ask the legislature for roughly $1.5 million a year to support the new CCID court and additional increases for youth-court intake and other judiciary needs.

The request matters because the CCID court cannot keep fines and fees: "The statute states that only all fines and fees collected go straight to Jackson, so this court will not be accepting any money for itself, so it'll have to be funded through the legislature," the AOC representative said. The AOC representative said the CCID court was funded a little over $730,000 last year and that "we've spent over half already, so we would ask that the new yearly budget be approximately $1,500,000." A committee member later referenced a $1.6 million figure when summarizing the request.

AOC described staffing needs and timing. The AOC representative said the CCID court will have two full-time judges and currently employs one clerk and two deputy clerks; a court administrator has not been hired and court-clerk duties will cover some administrative work. The representative said the court is scheduled to open later this…