Sometimes there’s a special person who can help a troubled teenager make a course correction before things in their life get worse.
For a number of young people in Lowndes County, Alabama, that person is Keisha Lee, the Chief Juvenile Probation Officer, who has Christian values.
We invite you to listen to our complete podcast interview further below
How do kids get involved with breaking the law?
“A lot of times, people commit crimes because they have no guidance. They don’t have that mom or dad who is actually active, and therefore they go out and commit crimes, they turn to drugs, they turn to peers who are a negative influence on them.”
When Keisha has an intake process for someone who’s come up against the law, she makes it a point to ask questions and really listen with her head and her heart. Questions like, “How are you feeling today? What do you have going on at home? What do you have going on at school?” And it’s not really small talk as much as it is to see a reaction. “Children do what they do for a reason – whether it’s good or whether it’s bad. And there are children who sometimes, they just do stuff to do it, but I have heard them say, ‘well, my mom doesn’t love me’ or ‘my father is not present.’”
Keisha helps us understand one particular child’s deep hurt. “I even had one child to say, ‘well, my father saw me in the store… and walked right past me.’” Things like that can lead to finding approval from ‘friends’ who are into bad stuff. She tells the juveniles that real friends “are going to encourage you to not do those bad things.”
Keisha sees some wins at influencing teenagers to consider their future and make a change, but as she told her local newspaper, “We can’t save them all, but I give 1,000%.”
Not a job to do solo
Just as she gives guidance to kids, Keisha seeks guidance from God to keep herself going. “I know that myself, alone, I can’t do a lot of the things that I do. So, I go to God and I ask Him for strength and I ask Him for peace because I don’t want my feelings to get in the way and hinder my purpose and my passion. And seeking peace and strength from God has really helped me to pursue my passion and my purpose in life to help these, because it takes a lot – especially patience…because they have a lot of hurt there inside and a lot of people don’t know how to deal with it.” She knows the young people need “reassurance – and that’s what I give them. And I seek that from God.”
In our revealing podcast interview Keisha shares about ways to help teens rise above their current lifestyle. And in a humorous note, she also explains a culture shock when her family moved from Michigan to Alabama when she awakened to see a cow at her bedroom window!
