Bryant vetoes change to detention of 10- and 11-year-olds

JACKSON, Miss. (AP) — Mississippi Gov. Phil Bryant has blocked a bill that would have limited the state's ability to detain some children convicted of violent crimes.

Legislators will not try to overturn the governor's veto.

Current law says that starting at age 10, a child convicted of a felony may be placed in a state training school or a secure detention facility. House Bill 666 proposed changing the minimum age to 12.

Bryant wrote in his veto message that it is rare but "not unprecedented" for a 10-year-old or an 11-year-old child to be convicted of a violent crime. He wrote that detention in a training school or secure facility "as a last resort, may be necessary to protect public safety."