Harrison County Youth Shelter, Gulfport, Mississippi. [more]
"I have a 2 1/2 year-old son and a 4 1/2 month-old daughter she is playing with. I’ve been here 25 days. My mother brings the children for me to visit." [more]
"My dad died 6 years ago. I miss him. They shot him 18 times. He was in the Mexican mafia." [more]
If a kid has "turned the corner" it means they are not going home, but will see a judge... [more]
"I did a lot of drugs, mostly weed, cigarettes, alcohol, shrooms. I didn’t care about anything but drugs." [more]
"Before this I was going to an alternative school, where you would go in and pick up the homework you were supposed to do, and then turn it in and pick up more. It was really dumb." [more]
"When they came to get me, I knew what was going on already. I was totally compliant. I have done a lot of drugs. Everything except heroin and Acid." [more]
"I'm here because I had five amber alerts called on me. I kept on running away with my boyfriend. He’s 26. I'm 18 years old, from Philadelphia." [more]
"I don’t know why I am here. I am not a bad kid, I just smoke a little weed." [more]
"The experience here is boring. I was originally sent here for fighting with anybody and everybody. (This is the same phrase one of his group-mates uses.) I never done any drugs." [more]
"The entire family has put in money to get her here. I’m kind of happy to be here." [more]
I have photographed group homes, police departments, youth correctional facilities, juvenile courtrooms, high schools, shelters, Montessori classrooms, CPS interview rooms, and maximum security lock-down and non-lock-down shelters, to name a few. Earl Dunlap, the Director of Cooke County Detention Center, welcomed me to his facility with the words: “Welcome to the gates of hell.”
In the past I have photographed for major magazines, newspapers and institutions. At this phase in my career I am turning my lens towards the juvenile justice system and using what I have learned in 40+ years of photography to create a database of compelling images to instigate policy reform. My products are unbiased photographic and textual evidence of a system that houses more than 100,000 kids every day.
Juvenile-In-Justice will be on view at the Nevada Museum of Art in Fall of 2012 and Feldman Gallery in 2013.
View all the images at www.Juvenile-In-Justice.com
