JUVIE
By Richard Ross
Richard Ross is an American photographer. He’s best known for his body of work on juveniles in the justice system, documenting the experience of America’s youngest prisoners for the past decade. The following pages present a selection of his work, including firsthand accounts of the young people shown in each image.
Juvenile courts in the US annually process an estimated 1.7 million cases of youth charged with a delinquency offense.
On any given day, approximately 70,000 young people are in juvenile detention or correctional facilities.
America’s heavy reliance on juvenile incarceration is unique among the world’s developed nations. A typical stay in a juvenile detention facility costs between $66,000 and $88,000 to incarcerate a young person for nine to twelve months.
Taken from Richard’s book, Juvenile In Justice (2012). For more information and find out how you can take action and get involved, visit www.juvenile-in-justice.com.
D.P.
Age 16
I live at home with my mother, ten-year-old brother, and stepfather. I don’t know my real father. I hate school and have been suspended. I spend my time at home hanging with my friends. I have two older brothers and one older sister, all in their twenties, and they all don’t live at home. I have been at King County for about a week and have been here three other times. They’re thinking of moving up my charges to Robbery one. I might be going to a decline status, not an auto decline, a person-on-person crime. I might be going to Residential Treatment Center to break the detention cycle... they tell me.
C.B.
Age 11
I’ve been here four times. This time I’ve been here a week. I’m from Watts. I live with my mom and my grandma. My brothers and sisters live with my stepdad. I’m gonna go on placement next week. I’m in sixth grade. I want to be somewhere else, so I take the car. I don’t know where I go, I just drive. My feet can sort of touch the pedals. I taught myself to drive. I go ’til I run out of gas. I cant really read the signs. It doesn’t matter. I don’t go nowhere, I go anywhere. I just drive.
J.W.
Age 15
I got a ticket for armed robbery when I was 12. The foster parents I had would hit me and my little sister. We ran, but we didn’t have any place to stay because my brother was in lock-up. I was running away when I was eight and my sister was six. The foster father I was with sexually abused us and then to get back at him we would hit their children. My mom was gang affiliated. When she heard my foster parents were hitting me she showed up with a gun. So the police put out an order on us because they thought she was a danger to us. Both my parents were gang members. They never fed us, they were selling drugs out of our house and we would be wandering around the streets with my brother and sister looking for food.
L.
Age 14
I’m 14. I’ve been here 7 months. I was 12 when I first came in here. I came in for fighting my brother. My mom, dad, Little brother, and sister visit. I’m in for 15-21 (months). My dad is African American, my mom is white. My oldest brother is home now. He was in DOC. I am here for robbery and abduction. I was physically and emotionally abused. My aunts hit me, foster people and stuff like that. I was in foster homes probably 2 years ago. I been in 4-5 foster homes. They just move us around and around. My little brother and little sister moved with me. My mom and dad used to fight so my mom had an order against my dad and he violated it so he got locked up…and my mom got on drugs. I went into foster care when I was like 7 or 8. My foster mom would push me around and hit me and stuff like that. I don’t have any kids. I’m on lock so I wear orange. If you keep on getting institutional charges they put you on IBRU… it means 30 days lock or something like that. I get an extra charge for destruction of state property.
D.P.
Age 16
I live at home with my mother, ten-year-old brother, and stepfather. I don’t know my real father. I hate school and have been suspended. I spend my time at home hanging with my friends. I have two older brothers and one older sister, all in their twenties, and they all don’t live at home. I have been at King County for about a week and have been here three other times. They’re thinking of moving up my charges to Robbery one. I might be going to a decline status, not an auto decline, a person-on-person crime. I might be going to Residential Treatment Center to break the detention cycle... they tell me.
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Richard Ross is an American Photographer. He’s best known for his body of work on juveniles in the justice system, documenting the experience of America’s youngest prisoners for the past decade. The following pages is a selection of his work, including the first-hand accounts of the young people shown in each photograph.
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