Employees of the Leflore County Juvenile Detention Center walked off the job Friday after not receiving any pay since Nov. 7, shutting down the facility.
In an email sent Friday morning to Leflore County Sheriff James Payne and Leflore County Administrator Cynthia Stanciel and shared with the Commonwealth, Leflore County and Youth Court Judge James Littleton said the detention center shut down since no employees of the center were at work to provide security, book juveniles held there or perform drug tests, among other services.
Because of this, operations of Leflore County Youth Court, which is housed on the second floor in the same building as the detention center, will also have to shut down.
An employee of the detention center, who was granted anonymity to protect his job, said nine employees walked out.
On Aug. 25, 2025, the Board of Supervisors voted 3-2 to close the detention center temporarily for needed renovations beginning Oct. 1.
Littleton contested the county’s order, issuing his own standing order in Leflore County Court in September demanding that the supervisors keep the center open.
The county appealed that order to Leflore County Circuit Court.
On Wednesday at a hearing held in Leflore County Circuit Court, the specially appointed judge, Kent McDaniel, ruled that Littleton’s standing county court order does not supersede the supervisors’ order.
Employees at the detention center have been caught in the crossfire, having had to work without pay for two months.
Because of Littleton’s standing county court order to keep the center open, employees had continued to show up to work, even though the county had notified them that their last day of pay would be the end of September.
Given that employees of the detention center worked past Oct. 1 — when the center technically was shut down by the county — the county did pay employees for their work in October as well as the first seven days of November. However, since Nov. 7, employees have not been paid.
Littleton told the Commonwealth on Friday that he has transferred youth held at the Leflore County Juvenile Detention Center to outside facilities. He also said that he’ll shut down the operations of youth court by Jan. 27 if employees continue to stage a walkout, given that no security can be provided.
Stanciel told the Commonwealth, however, that Payne has assigned two deputies to youth court to ensure proceedings can still be held.
Stanciel also emphasized, per the Board of Supervisors’ motion last August, that the juvenile detention center is closed, even though employees previously followed Littleton’s standing order in county court to come to work.
According to the employee of the juvenile detention center, the county made no plans to have those employees transferred to other county departments for employment.
The employee also said that despite the center technically closing Oct. 1, law enforcement officers had continued to bring juvenile delinquents, including youth allegedly possessing firearms, a major issue, for booking at the center, the employee said.
Because of this, the employee said their work at the detention center was essential, as local youth would otherwise have no place to go.
“We still got to take them in. We can’t turn them around,” the employee said, adding that they’ve been supportive of Littleton’s fight to keep the detention center open.
However, the employee said it’s been frustrating to have worked two months without any pay: “We have kids, we have responsibilities and most of us, we’re behind on our bills.”
The employee added that prior to the walkout, the remaining employees who continued to work at the detention center had taken on double shifts, from eight hours to 16 hours, to make up for some of the employees who had left their jobs due to not being paid.
It was equally frustrating, the employee said, that the unpaid employees were not a centerpiece of discussion during Wednesday’s circuit court hearing regarding the juvenile detention center, meaning that their unpaid labor would not be resolved.
It was for that reason personnel at the detention centered decided to stage the walkout, the employee said.
- Gerard Edic is a corps member with Report for America, a national service program that places journalists into local newsrooms. Contact him at 662-581-7237 or gedic@gwcommonwealth.com. You can support his work with a tax-deductible donation at bit.ly/3G7iXiy.
