The Craighead County Circuit Clerk’s office is facing a daunting task of reviewing thousands of juvenile files to determine if they can be destroyed. Circuit Clerk Candace Edwards says not destroying those records is a violation of state law, and the county could face lawsuits. Edwards tells how many files must be reviewed.
“What I have figured out is that we have about 15,000 files that are going to have to be reviewed,” said Edwards.
She says the files go back over the last 40 to 50 years, and she says there are more files that are in storage that have not been uncovered yet.
“As we are going through things, we have not located some of the files yet. They are there, but we have not found them yet. There are about six years’ worth of files that were not touched and are still in boxes.”
State law requires that juvenile court records be destroyed on the 21st birthday of that juvenile, unless those files meet four sets of criteria. Edwards says each file must be reviewed individually to see if those files meet the criteria. The Craighead County Quorum Court’s finance committee has approved appropriating funds to hire a person that would spend at least the next year working on reviewing those files. The salary for that person would reportedly be $45,000 and Edwards says she has a person in mind that would do the job, once the position was approved by the Craighead County Quorum Court. That will be brought up in two weeks.
