The Azriel Collective

The Azriel Collective Robin Benham- author of Raising Justice. Advocate for systems accountability and justice reform.
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When I worked for the public defender- and yes - Justice committed a crime while I worked for the public defender …we wa...
07/25/2026

When I worked for the public defender- and yes - Justice committed a crime while I worked for the public defender …we was prosecuting young men for adult crimes …. Mitigating cases to try to get lesser sentences. A lot people judge and don’t understand .

I used to be like dang —“how can we reach them before they get here?”

I’ve gone thru my own life and experiences, to kinda help navigate insight.

But actually losing a son- ya girl ain’t been the same . To be transparent the only thing that keeps me pushing is these pills — that my psychiatrist has to keep increasing the dose.

My family dynamic in my own home is hard and riddled with pain. I don’t want to socialize . I want to be by myself . I go in the community and I love talking to them about change , but I just wanna be at home with my kids. I don’t care about nothing else . But I know I have to hold it in the road for my other kids. For JeVion.

See, i was reading his letters , when i was in the height of my career I couldn’t physically be there for him. When I lost that job I couldn’t financially be there for him. Saying — love ya kids while you have the chance . Survival mode will have you missing things that you should be paying attention to.

No amount of money could ever plug this hole in our hearts. But this pain has always been my purpose… but my son—my son’s pain is finna make a change 🤞🏿

And interesting enough. I started this page to showcase my story telling - mostly about relationships and motherhood. Yo...
07/25/2026

And interesting enough. I started this page to showcase my story telling - mostly about relationships and motherhood.

You see how my whole life has changed ?

😘
07/24/2026

😘

This the last day I talked to my son. He sounded scared but he sounded strong . He sounded tired but at peace . Like su...
07/24/2026

This the last day I talked to my son.

He sounded scared but he sounded strong . He sounded tired but at peace . Like sumn was about to happen.

“Happy Holidays ma, I love you “

In my head I’m like “ why you sound like this the last time I’m finna hear from you “

Also in my head “how you get a phone in the hole”

But it’s like he answered my question I was thinking “ I’m talking to you thru the vent, I’m hungry - these folks ain’t feeding us”

Buddy said “no ma’am I promise I wouldn’t had called you you if it was , I got food I’m finna sell him”
Then a few days two later I get two text that take my soul:

Then so many people started texting me “I’m so sorry for your loss before I even knew if my baby was really gone everybody knew before me….

Everybody knew before the warden called me … everybody knew while they was covering they tracks . Everybody knew while commissioner Oliver was down there throwing a fit.

Everybody knew …. But me.

I think people need to understand why families like mine become angry.When your child dies while in the custody of the s...
07/24/2026

I think people need to understand why families like mine become angry.

When your child dies while in the custody of the state, there is a part of you that believes the answers will come quickly. You think someone will sit down, tell you what happened, explain how it happened, and take responsibility for the failures that allowed it to happen.

But that is not always what happens.

Instead, you find yourself fighting for information about your own child. You are waiting on records. Waiting on answers. Waiting for people who were responsible for his safety to explain why he is no longer here.

And that is the part that hurts the most.

I don’t care what he did.

Because this should not be complicated.

A human being was placed in the care of the state. A family should not have to fight this hard to understand how that person died.

The reality is, when an institution is being questioned, transparency can become a struggle. Systems protect themselves. They move carefully. They take their time. And while they are taking their time, families are living with the same unanswered questions every single day.

But Justice was not just a file. He was not just an inmate. He was my son.

He had a laugh. He had dreams. He had people who loved him. He had a mother who deserved to know the truth.

I should not have to fight to make people care. I should not have to fight to get basic answers. I should not have to fight to remind people that behind every case file is a person.

But I will.

Because Justice life mattered. And until the truth is fully brought to light, I will continue asking the questions that should have been answered from the beginning.

I’m so pi**ed- yall don’t even know.

Dear Justice ,I’ve been up since 3:25 AM thinking about you. Going down rabbit holes. Anxious because I don’t have closu...
07/21/2026

Dear Justice ,

I’ve been up since 3:25 AM thinking about you. Going down rabbit holes. Anxious because I don’t have closure. I didn’t have a funeral. It’s just time. I put your pictures all around the house, your smiling face makes me confused. Like thinking back, how life changed so fast.

Did you see that about Nolan Wells? Ion know the facts but his mama tripping just like me - well I kinda understand how she feels Or are you and he somewhere up there with us, guiding us? You know what I'm saying... i miss gossiping with you lol. I wanted to give you the tea.

Remember I told you - Doing battle with the GDC isn't just a legal fight; it is staring directly into an opaque, defensive wall built entirely to bury accountability. It’s an exhausting, heavy system designed to exhaust families into submission, where every request for truth is met with obstruction, and every internal rule broken by their staff is brushed under the rug. But they miscalculated. They didn't count on truth having a longer memory than their cover-ups. And you confirmed in your letters- that’s exactly how they get down smh. - and that’s why I told you to just chill - cause I ain’t wanna fight with them people … but I see you forced my hand because I used to quiet and not want to put a target on your back.

And God, the reality of today is suffocating. I close my eyes for a split second, and I see you. I blink, and that next second, I am forced to see the reality they left behind, seeing you laying there, altered beyond recognition, a child destroyed by a system that was legally mandated to keep you safe. It really pi**es me off- like “twin fr, you let em catch you slipping” I know you told me you ain’t see it coming and I believe you.

I haven’t healed. Let the world know that, because the polished lie of "moving on" is a luxury prison administrators don't get to buy me. The tears still flow effortlessly, crashing down like clockwork every other day, a physical reminder of an absence that nothing can fill.

Love always,
Mom

To every GDC employee, administrator, and guard scrolling through feeds tonight: I want your stomach to hurt. I want you to read this and feel the weight of what happens when you treat human lives like disposable numbers. I want the people who wear the uniforms, the ones who look the other way, who falsify logs, and who warehouse children in environments they have no business being in, to feel sick to their stomach. Because the negligence you sweep under the rug has faces, and it has families who will never, ever stop exposing what you tried to hide in the dark.
We are just getting started.

- The Azriel Collective

lol, Justice used to brag on me becoming an attorney and my legal knowledge. He was proud of me- we were watching each ...
07/21/2026

lol, Justice used to brag on me becoming an attorney and my legal knowledge. He was proud of me- we were watching each other grow up. That was the highest compliment from him besides saying I was an amazing mom (he was just stupid as he would say)

I was preparing for his homecoming … not many may have had a mama like me, one who could balance motherhood, reentry resources, helping build an entrepreneurial legacy, help his vision come to fruition- while having faith in the fact- his charges weren’t going to keep him back if he decided to stay focused.

Now- to hear his attorneys say- they’ve never had a client like me before …. The highest compliment they can give my baby….

Let that sink in.

I’ve been getting my mental health together , my fitness on another level, my career, my goals, my vision with other youth…. Not just for me, my image, but more for my baby.

Many may forget about him now- but many won’t forget about him later 🤞🏿😘

Address

500 W Hickman Road #143
Marietta, GA
50263

Telephone

+15153468974

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