The term “juvenile delinquent” is probably every parent’s worst nightmare. After all, we love our kids. We want good things for them, and we want them to succeed in life. So the thought of watching them derail before they’ve even reached adulthood is heartbreaking to us parents. And it’s no different in Georgia for Bibb County Superior Court Judge Verda Colvin, who is a mother as well as a judge, and a woman deeply invested in rerouting those derailed lives before it’s too late.
In a recent video that went viral, Judge Colvin of Bibb County in Georgia is seen addressing a group of troubled teens in her courtroom. To the small group of teen girls sitting in the courtroom, she said, “Young ladies, whether anyone has ever told you before, you are special. You are uniquely made. Stop acting like you are trash and putting pictures of yourself on the internet. Stop being disrespectful to your parents.”
Program teaches teens what incarceration would be like
It was an impassioned speech which Colvin has said that she gives about once a month to a group of at-risk teens in a volunteer program titled “Consider the Consequences”. The program teaches teens, through real life experience what incarceration would be like, and in doing so, aims to provide them with an incentive to get back on the straight and narrow.
In the video the minors, who ranged in age from 9 to 17, sat in total silence while Judge Colvin shared some very real and raw truths with them. “Be somebody! Anybody can be nothing. It doesn’t take anything to be nothing. Be something….Do it! The only person stopping you, is you!”
Colvin told the young men that sexual assault in prison is a terrifying reality and that if they end up behind bars, there is nothing they can do about it. “Do you want to be another statistic?” She asked them pointedly. As a single mother of two, Judge Colvin says that she knows everything there is to know about teenaged boys and she believes very strongly that they don’t have to suffer behind bars. It’s all about the choices they make now.
Minors in the program are dressed in prison jumpsuits, handcuffed and placed in a cell for a while. They are given an apple and a baloney sandwich for lunch to show them how poor the jail diet is. They are also given an opportunity to speak to inmates in a calm setting, asking them questions and getting first hand information about what it’s like to live life behind bars.
At the end of the speech, which only lasted about 9 minutes, there is hardly a dry eye in the house. Deputies circled the courtroom quietly, handing out tissues to tearful youths. “I believe that one reason our society is so messed up is because some people who were born to do certain things, just drop the ball. And so for every person who didn’t do what they were supposed to do, we are missing something as a society. If you all continue to go the way you’re going, that’s seventeen more gifts we’re missing.”
This story takes place in Georgia and not Michigan, but compassion and kindness are universal. So we wanted to take a moment to highlight this Judge’s heartfelt display of both traits, because we believe that kind and compassionate Judges make for greater justice.