Mississippi Code Title 41. Public Health § 41-19-301

(1) The Mississippi Adolescent Center located in Brookhaven, Mississippi, is recognized as now existing and shall be for the care and treatment of persons with an intellectual disability. The facility shall have the power to receive and hold property, real, personal and mixed, as a body corporate. The facility shall be under the direction and control of the State Board of Mental Health.

(2) Admissions shall be limited to adolescents with an intellectual disability who have been committed to the center by a youth court judge or chancellor in accordance with Section 41-21-109, or who are voluntarily admitted to the center.

(3) The Mississippi Adolescent Center is authorized to establish and operate a school to meet the educational needs of its clients.

(4) With funds provided by the Legislature, by direct appropriation or authorized bond issue, with federal matching funds, or with any other available funds, the Bureau of Building, Grounds and Real Property Management may construct and equip the necessary residential and service buildings and other facilities to care for the residents of the Mississippi Adolescent Center. The general design of the facility and all construction plans shall be approved and recommended by the State Department of Mental Health.

(5) The Mississippi Adolescent Center shall be administered by the State Board of Mental Health. Provisions relating to the admission and care of residents at the facility shall be promulgated by the board.

(6) Persons admitted to the Mississippi Adolescent Center shall be assessed support and maintenance costs in accordance with the provisions of the state reimbursement laws as they apply to other state institutions.

(7) Any person who (a) knowingly and unlawfully or improperly causes a person to be adjudged to be a person with an intellectual disability, (b) procures the escape of a legally committed resident or knowingly conceals an escaped legally committed resident of the facility, or (c) unlawfully brings any firearm, deadly weapon or explosive into the facility or its grounds, or passes any thereof to a resident, employee or officer of the school, is guilty of a misdemeanor and, upon conviction, shall be punished by a fine of not less than Fifty Dollars ($50.00), or more than Two Hundred Dollars ($200.00), imprisonment for not less than six (6) months, or both.

(8) The Mississippi Adolescent Center is designated as a state agency for carrying out the purposes of any act of the Congress of the United States, now existing or at any time hereafter enacted, pertaining to intellectual disabilities.