Court Is Turned Into Class for Young Violators : ‘Choice Is Clear--Learn or Go to Jail,’ Judge Says

Students who cut class at Miriam Waltzer’s school could end up behind bars.

“The choice is clear--learn or go to jail,” said Waltzer, a criminal court judge who got tired of seeing young defendants who couldn’t read the legal paper work in front of them.

Her solution: Turn her courtroom into a classroom.

“What I noticed was that the defendants got younger and younger and less and less educated. I realized that I had the power to put them on probation and make education part of the terms of that probation,” the judge said.

Since most had been expelled from school, she couldn’t send them back there.

So Waltzer started what she calls the Probation Education Program--PEP--with classes in her courtroom run by volunteer tutors. The program, which she supervises, started in May and has an enrollment of two dozen students, ages 17 to 27.

Each Tested

Before the students tackle their first assignment, each is tested to determine how much he or she knows.

“Most of these people dropped out of school in about the 9th grade, but what we’ve found is that most of them are on a second- or third-grade level academically,” Waltzer said.

Once class starts, the rules are simple: Study and don’t cut class.

One unexcused absence means a weekend in jail; two and the student is off probation and in prison. For those who stay out of trouble, the five-year probation ends as soon as the student earns a high school diploma.

“It’s tough. That lady doesn’t let you slip up,” said Charles Carter, 26, who has been a student in the program from the beginning. “Sometimes you’ve been working and you’re tired and you don’t want to come, but you have to. I like it, though. I like the reading, anyway. I don’t like the division and English, but I’m learning it too.”

Barber School

Carter, convicted of drug possession, said he hopes to get his diploma this spring and enter barber school.

Roosevelt Thomas, 21, convicted of carrying a concealed weapon, said he would like to go to college and perhaps become a lawyer.

“That’s what my mama wanted me to be. I got a lot of court experience already,” he joked.

Once he’s earned a high school degree, Thomas said, he also has another goal in mind.

“I want to be like these fellows,” he said, nodding toward the tutors bent over students around the big courtroom. “I want to come back here and teach some other people. I want to help someone else learn this stuff.”

Waltzer’s program can handle no more than 30 students at a time, she said, although many more could benefit from it.

“I could really put people in the program like crazy. Nobody knows how to read or write anymore,” she said.

The judge said she would like to see the Louisiana Legislature require--and fund--a program such as hers. In the meantime, she scrounges for the money needed for books and other materials. The program is funded solely by contributions.

“What is so nice is that we can really turn these people around. We can give them a chance,” she said. “It’s not much, but for most of them, it’s more than they ever got before.”