Photographer Richard Ross has traveled all over the country taking pictures of juvenile detention facilities and the resulting book and website are haunting. Wired has a story about it:
The resulting photo-survey, Juvenile-In-Justice, documents 350 facilities in over 30 states. It’s more than a peek into unseen worlds — it is a call to action and care.
“I grew up in a world where you solve problems, you don’t destroy a population,” says Ross. “To me it is an affront when I see the way some of these kids are dealt with.”
The U.S. locks up children at more than six times the rate of all other developed nations. The over 60,000 average daily juvenile lockups, a figure estimated by the Annie E. Casey Foundation (AECF), are also disproportionately young people of color. With an average cost of $80,000 per year to lock up a child, the U.S. spends more than $5 billion annually on youth detention.
On top of the cost, in its recent report No Place for Kids, the AECF presents evidence to show that youth incarceration does not reduce recidivism rates, does not benefit public safety and exposes those imprisoned to further abuse and violence.
Ross thinks his images of juvenile lock-ups can, and should, be “ammunition” for the ongoing policy and funding debates between reformers, staff, management and law-makers.
Our juvenile justice system is appalling. Physical and sexual abuse of inmates is rampant, either by other kids in the facility or by the adults in charge. In a criminal justice system that should be the shame of the country, this may be the single worst element.
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slc1
April 17, 2012 at 9:08 am (UTC -4) Link to this comment
$80,000/year. Someone could be enrolled in an Ivy League school for a little more then half that.
Marcus Ranum
April 17, 2012 at 9:09 am (UTC -4) Link to this comment
We should stop calling it a “justice” system.
sophiagroup
April 17, 2012 at 9:46 am (UTC -4) Link to this comment
Welcome to the prison industrial complex, cheap slave labor in the USA! Many of these institutions are privatized, for profit industries now. That should have never been allowed.
The Lorax
April 17, 2012 at 10:07 am (UTC -4) Link to this comment
$80 grand per year per child? Seriously? My mother raised two kids by herself on less than half of that, and she had it good compared to many, many others!
Shameful.
baal
April 17, 2012 at 10:07 am (UTC -4) Link to this comment
We’ll never keep our #1 standing* in the world if we don’t lock up all the kids too!
*per capita, US locks up more than anyone else in the world.
thalwen
April 17, 2012 at 10:18 am (UTC -4) Link to this comment
Of course the kids that are locked up are disproportionally minorities. They did a study in my state a few years ago and black kids almost always would get locked up while white kids would almost always get counselling or some other non-jail options.
Also $80,000 a year per kid? So much could be accomplished if even a fraction of that would be sent to schools and communities. It won’t because politicians need to look tough on crime and companies need to get rich.
D. C. Sessions
April 17, 2012 at 11:33 am (UTC -4) Link to this comment
$5 billion a year may not be oil and coal, but it’s a damned big industry. Much more of a job creator than Bain Capital, even — so it’s important enough to protect.
D. C. Sessions
April 17, 2012 at 11:35 am (UTC -4) Link to this comment
Unless I’m mistaken, we don’t need the “per capita” handicap.
Akira MacKenzie
April 17, 2012 at 11:40 am (UTC -4) Link to this comment
The trouble with dealing with the barbarism and cruelty of the American prison system is that, by in large, the American people WANT their prisons to be barabaric and cruel. To them, the squalor, the violence, and the rape are all part of the “justice” a felon must endure as punishment braking society’s laws. We want our prisons to be a slice of earthly Hell, the politicians and the McPrisons are just a manifestation of that market demand.
Area Man
April 17, 2012 at 12:08 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
For $80k a year, they could hire a personal full-time mentor for each kid. A highly educated and well-trained mentor. I’m not sure if that would produce better outcomes than putting the kids in juvie, but it could hardly do worse.
Area Man
April 17, 2012 at 12:15 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
This. The barbarity of our “justice” system is regarded by most of the public as a feature, not a bug, which is why it’s not going to change anytime soon. America is gripped by the religious sentiment that the only proper way to treat sin and vice is through punishment, the harsher the better. As a result, criminals (or anyone sort-of suspected of maybe being a criminal) are dehumanized and no one cares if they suffer pointlessly. It also helps if they don’t look like you.
kermit.
April 17, 2012 at 12:52 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
It’s certainly self-perpetuating. Not only are there more and more companies openly making more money the more prisoners are put in jail*, but there are many employees of various organizations that profit from an over-burdened prison system. And psychologically, the ones who support the way things are want to maximize punishment more than anything else. Just as Pro-Lifers [sic] don’t care how many fetuses die as long as the sluts are punished, so too the same people (largely) don’t care if society falls apart, as long as they get to max out the number of people getting punished.
I remember, as a Southern Baptist kid, the look of glee on church member’s faces when they talked of spending eternity watching the unrepentant in Hell getting tortured. When they weren’t telling God how awesome he was, of course.
*Why aren’t they paid to keep people out of jail? Or a set fee per year, so they profit more the emptier the jails are?
josephmccauley
April 17, 2012 at 2:39 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
My heart breaks every time I see one of my former students in the court page. My batting average with those kids was obviously not the best. I was not a believer in “there is no such thing as a bad kid” meme, but I met very few bad kids in my 35 years in a classroom.
No one ever wants to see the stats, but broken homes and poverty deal a kid a tough hand to play. I tried to be a caring adult and a good role model (and maybe teach a little math and science). I tried to have a safe place in class for kids who did not have much at home.
Six weeks ago I was patting myself on the back because one of my former students got a big grant (She is a prof at Hahvahd). The next week one of mine got arrested in a drug shooting. Sigh.
Images of a Barbaric Juvenile Justice System | Dispatches from the Culture Wars « childrensvoice
April 17, 2012 at 11:48 am (UTC -4) Link to this comment
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