Ten men graduated on Wednesday from an intensive program that just might have saved their lives.
The Greenwood Municipal Drug Court ceremonies honored the commitment of those men to sobriety and to taking a different path than the one they were on.
Drug Court, under the leadership of Municipal Court Judge Carlos Palmer and Program Director Ouida Martin, diverts nonviolent offenders whose misdemeanor crimes were drug- and/or alcohol-related and guides them through a one- to two-year intensive program of random drug testing, comprehensive supervision and treatment if needed.
In the process, participants interact with community groups in preparation for a drug-free, alcohol-free life upon completing the program.
Greenwood is one of only two municipalities in Mississippi with a drug court alternative. The other is Columbus.
Charles Grant, one of the graduates, welcomed family and friends to the graduation ceremony that featured a keynote address from Mississippi Court of Appeals Judge Tyree Irving, a Leflore County native.
Alexandrea Harris opened the proceedings with an a cappella song appropriate to the occasion: “Change me, oh God/ Wash me through and through/ Create in me a clean heart/ So that I may worship you.”
Speakers, including area clergy, adhered to the simple message that drug court is all about second chances.
Irving was introduced by Palmer, who clerked for him at the Court of Appeals for two years following law school. Irving spoke directly to the graduates, drawing lessons from his own life that he said he hoped might offer practical instruction.
“I salute you,” Irving told the graduates.
A native son who rose from the ranks of chopping cotton as a 7-year-old boy on a plantation near Swiftown to the bench of the state’s second highest court, Irving has served for 20 years as a judge at the Court of Appeals and will retire at the end of this year.
“Where you come from is not as important in the end as what you commit to do with your life,” he said. “It’s about where you end up.
“I don’t hesitate to say where I came from, however, hoping it might inspire men like you.”
Irving’s message was straightforward.
“You can do whatever you want to do in life, even after making mistakes like those you have made, if you believe in yourself and you can develop a good work ethic.”
Irving said he knew as a child that the back-breaking work he did in the cotton fields was just one season of his life, one he could endure, and one in which he could prove himself to be “as good as anybody else out there, including the overseer.
“God didn’t chain me or my mind,” he said. “Never let anybody else define you.
“Don’t let anybody cause you to alter your standards.”
The yearning for material comfort that drives us, Irving said, is understandable, but it can be accomplished only through steady dedication and work, not through shortcuts.
Irving said he spent lots of years on the bench witnessing all manner of criminal activity, often wondering what drove someone to commit a particular crime, to throw his or her life away.
He came away with one conclusion: Those who attempted to get away with breaking the law thought they were smarter than everybody else.
“You are as smart as you need to be,” he told the graduates, “but you’re not smarter than everybody else.
“Don’t cheat on your basic principles. If you do, you’ll pay for it.”
Palmer ended the ceremony by assuring the graduates that their future battles don’t have to be fought in isolation.
“We’re here for you,” he said. “And we’re depending on you to continue being better people.”
•Contact Kathryn Eastburn at 581-7235 or keastburn@gwcommonwealth.com.
