Jess Dickinson, head of Mississippi's troubled foster care agency, resigning

Mississippi Child Protection Services Commissioner Jess Dickinson said Tuesday that he's submitted a letter of resignation, effective January.

Dickinson, 72, said he wants spend more time with family, which includes nine grandchildren and two foster grandchildren.

Dickinson was a Mississippi Supreme Court Justice until Gov. Phil Bryant tapped him in September 2017 to take over CPS after David Chandler, the agency's first commissioner and also a former Supreme Court justice, resigned. Dickinson said he's leaving the embattled state agency better than when he started.

The state of Mississippi has been locked in litigation over its foster care and adoption services since a 2004 lawsuit known as the Olivia Y. suit, and a court monitor found in June that children in state custody are still being abused and neglected.

'The agency is doing great'

Still, Dickinson pointed to positive developments in his agency.

"I think that the agency is doing great. I think our numbers look great. We’ve doubled the number of adoptions for two years in a row," he said. "...We are accomplishing adoptions much quicker ... We are reunifying children with their families faster and safer."

According to Dickinson, when he took over the agency, there were 6,100 children in state custody. As of Tuesday, that number was down to 4,347, he said.

"That's in spite of the fact that we've had a substantial increase in reports to the agency," Dickinson said.

CPS chief Dickinson: Foster care crisis 'squarely on my shoulders.' But money, time needed

'Children are worse off'

However, Marcia Robinson Lowry, executive director of A Better Childhood, said Dickinson's tenure as CPS commissioner was bad for Mississippi children. A Better Childhood is the organization suing the state of Mississippi in the Olivia Y. case.

As part of Olivia Y., a federal court ordered Mississippi to do a better job protecting children in its custody.

The state has never fully been in compliance with the order, but Lowry said the management team preceding Dickinson had been making process.

Under Dickinson, Lowry said things got worse, and the state was falling further out of compliance.

"I don't think he was tried to comply or have his agency comply with the requirements of the federal court order," Lowry said. "... I think the children are worse off for that."

CPS, like many state agencies, has said at times the Legislature is under-funding the agency, but Lowry said Dickinson's poor management can't be solely blamed on money.

Dickinson said Lowry was "completely wrong."

"Anybody who knows what is going on in this agency and this state will tell you that," Dickinson said. "...I don't want to get into a newspaper, public squabble with Marcia Lowry. She's filed what she's filed in the court, and we've responded to it in briefs ... I look at the outcomes to children. She's looking at some kind of mathematical statistics in that settlement agreement."

When asked how he feels about the status of CPS, Dickinson said he's "pleased."

"It's no denying the fact, I think, that we could have done more if we had more money," Dickinson said, but noted that he's proud of his staff.

Lowry pointed out that Dickinson's retirement is coming a month before major court dates in the Olivia Y. case.

"He is resigning in the midst of an increasingly heated court fight over whether or not the state is going to be held in contempt and whether a receiver is going to be appointed," Lowry said.

The resignation has nothing to do with the state's ongoing litigation over its foster and adoption services, Dickinson said. He said it was always his plan to retire when the governor's term ended.

Report: Mississippi foster care children still abused, neglected. Feds may take over

What is the Olivia Y. lawsuit? 

Olivia Y. was one of eight children named as plaintiffs — but representing many others — abused because Mississippi failed to protect children in foster care. Olivia was a 3½-year-old girl in Forrest County who entered state custody weighing only 22 pounds in 2003. Despite being malnourished, she was listed as having no problems and was not given a medical exam.

She was given five separate foster placements in the first three months of her entry into custody of the Division of Family and Children’s Services custody. DFCS placed Olivia in her aunt's house, claiming a background check on adults in the house had been done, but she was removed after the agency learned the aunt's son was a convicted rapist.

After being placed in a shelter, Olivia was malnourished, suffering depression and showed signs of sexual abuse, but DFCS, according to the original complaint, made no effort to perform a thorough medical exam to determine sexual abuse or the extent of her injuries or find her a permanent home even after six months in state custody. DFCS at the time still listed as its ultimate goal to reunite Olivia with her mother who had neglected her.

The lawsuit — on behalf of thousands of children who go through the Mississippi system — was filed in federal court in 2004. A settlement was reached in 2008, but the state has since failed to comply with the terms of the settlement.

DFCS was a part of the Mississippi of Department of Human Services, but later became its own state agency — CPS — as part of the lawsuit.

Contact Giacomo "Jack" Bologna at 601-961-7282 or gbologna@gannett.com. Follow him on Twitter @gbolognaCL.