HOW TO GET INVOLVED:
WHEN: Thursdays and Fridays from June 4 through July 10
WHAT TIME: Drop-off is at 4 p.m., Camp is from 4:30-8:15 p.m.
WHERE TO REGISTER: Byram Police Department or Byram City Hall (in person, please)
COST: $25 for 11 and up, $15 for 10 and under
WHERE IS CAMP: Byram Middle School
CONTACT: Elroy Winding at 601-927-9943 or Erma Johnson at 601-918-6369
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BYRAM — It started with a teenager who loved basketball, a patrol officer who saw his potential, and a crime that couldn’t be undone.
That was the beginning of the Blue Dawgs Youth Camp, and it’s why Detective Judson Magloire will spend another summer after two years off pouring his off-duty hours into keeping kids off the streets.
“I felt like if I was still on patrol, I would have had more time to interact with him,” Magloire said of the young man who inspired the program, a kid he’d met at 13, shot hoops with on neighborhood courts and watched slide into trouble despite his talent. “I felt like it would have prevented him from committing the crime that he committed.”
The young man is still in prison. He calls Magloire, and they write letters.
(File) Detective Judson Magloire in the inaugural year of the Blue Dawg Youth Camp“The first letter, I was so hurt, it took me a while to actually talk to him,” Magloire said. “He basically apologized. He regretted what he did and realized everything that I was trying to teach him.”
Magloire says the teen told him that he gets out, he wants to come speak to the kids.
The Blue Dawgs Youth Camp begins
It broke his heart.
Magloire took his grief to his command staff, pitched a structured summer program for Byram-area youth, and got a green light. The Blue Dawgs Youth Camp was born.
It started in 2022, and went strong through 2023, but then Magloire changed departments.
Now back in its third year after those two years off, the camp runs evenings on Thursdays and Fridays 6 p.m. to around 9 p.m. at Byram Middle School, timed deliberately to compete with the hours when juvenile crime spikes. The 2026 session runs June 4 through July 10, and it is open to any youth in the Byram-Hinds County area, free of charge.
The results have been striking. During the summers the program has run, youth-related crime in Byram dropped by roughly 50 percent. In the 2023 session, not a single Byram resident youth was arrested on a misdemeanor or violent charge for the duration of the camp.
“The feeling was very rewarding and really unreal,” Magloire said. “The goal was to just help one youth versus all of them. It was really tremendous.”
Everybody wins
Byram Chief Kevin Turner said the stakes couldn’t be clearer.
Drawing on the book of Isaiah, the chief pointed to a passage describing how Hell enlarges itself to receive more souls as more arrive, and he said crime feels the same sometimes.
“When you look at the community, not just us but just in the metro area, they’re closing schools but they’re expanding jails,” Turner said. “It seems like we’re preparing for more crime and we’re not doing as much to prevent it as we are preparing for it to happen.”
The camp, he said, is the department’s answer to that math.
“Instead of us being police officers and waiting on them to mess up so we can punish, we talk more about punish the behavior and not enough about how to deter it,” Turner said. “We’re coming out of our comfort zone, meeting them where they are to keep them from taking that road.”
The program’s reach has inspired programs well beyond Byram. After Blue Dawgs launched, the Jackson Police Department restarted its own PALS summer program. Hinds County followed with its Warriors program. And Judge Hicks of Hinds County Youth Court began ordering juvenile offenders to complete the Blue Dawgs program as a condition of having their charges dropped.
“After we did that, JPD started their summer program again,” Assistant Chief Derrick Jordan said. “It sparked Hinds County to start their Warriors program. And not only that, any kid that got in trouble, one of their stipulations would be that they have to attend our program. If they completed the summer program and got their certificate, their charges would be dropped.”
What to expect
Past camps have brought in SWAT teams, youth court and circuit court judges, and an MHP helicopter that landed on-site, which is a moment Magloire still talks about. The kids were in awe, and some were inspired. In fact, a camper who wanted to be an aviation mechanic asked questions of the crew, but already he knew every answer.
Parents have come away changed, too. At one session, families learned that a juvenile who brandishes a BB gun while implying it’s real has committed a violent crime under Mississippi law, a fact that stunned the room.
“Even though it was a BB gun and not a real gun?” parents asked. Yes, Magloire told them. And that’s prison time.
Officers have given as much as the kids. Patrol officers, warrant officers and their families all volunteered. Officer Washington once refereed a kickball game in his bulletproof vest, tactical helmet and a whistle.
Magloire’s own children have been involved in the camp. This year, his son will manage the game room.
“We had a great time,” Magloire said. “And I’m glad we’re doing the program again.”
The camp is free and open to all youth in the Byram-Hinds County area. Volunteers who can pass a background check are also welcome to participate. For more information, contact the Byram Police Department.
