Photographer Richard Ross’ “Juvenile-In-Justice” project documents the treatment of youth in the American juvenile justice system, and “the facilities that treat, confine, punish, assist and, occasionally, harm them.”
The project “includes photographs and interviews with over 1,000 juveniles and administrators at 100+ facilities in 30 states in the U.S, as well as facilities in Canada and Mexico.” See the amazing collection here.
Brandon Kennedy, who went to jail for 28 months on drug charges when he was 17.
Massachusetts is one of only 13 states where criminal cases involving 17-year-olds are handled in the adult justice system rather than juvenile justice system. Fortunately, though, this may change; the state legislature is considering a bill that would increase the age of criminal responsibility in Massachusetts to 18. This follows on the heels of a recent Citizens for Juvenile Justice Report showing that there is a 47 percent greater likelihood of a teen being arrested again if the adolescent is charged in the adult system versus the juvenile system. The report also said younger inmates are more likely to be sexually victimized.
Currently, 500 17-year-olds are sent to adult jails or prisons in Massachusetts every year.
Click here to read more and hear WBUR’s radio coverage.
We rarely see images of incarcerated children like this.
You can take a look at more of photographer Richard Ross’ work and watch a video in which he is interviewed here.
This study confirms that incarcerating youth is toxic for both those youth and for society, by demonstrating that youth prisons do not reduce future offenses, waste taxpayer dollars, and expose youth to dangerous and abusive conditions.
This commentary includes more useful observations for those who need convincing, like the fact that 336 of every 100,000 of the world’s incarcerated youth is locked away in a U.S. prison facility– nearly five times the rate of South Africa, the next country on list– and that juvenile crime fell when Texas authorities began to decrease the jailed youth population.
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