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The Architecture of Juvenile Detention in America
A 12-year-old in his cell at the Harrison County Juvenile Detention Center in Biloxi, Mississippi. The window has been boarded up from the outside. The facility is operated by Mississippi Security Police, a private company. In 1982, a fire killed 27 prisoners and an ensuing lawsuit against the authorities forced them to reduce their population to maintain an 8:1 inmate to staff ratio.
On any given night in the U.S., there are approximately 60,500 youth confined in juvenile correctional facilities or other residential programs. Photographer Richard Ross has spent the past five years criss-crossing the country photographing the architecture, cells, classrooms and inhabitants of these detention sites.
— wired.com
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7 Comments
This must be one of those PENN students' renderings for their prison tower...
"Ross often cites the situation in Oakland, a city which spends $4945 per child in its public school system, but $224,712 per child incarcerated in the Alameda County Juvenile Justice Center."
wow, that figure really puts this situation into perspective. unbelievable.
It's disgusting, Micah. Appalling. Look at that poor child - he's TWELVE! - in a boarded up cell. For fuckssake what is wrong with us as a culture. Oh, I remember: profit.
Private prison companies can go to hell.
just wondering what crime he committed at 12! to deserve this? is there a point to richard ross taking these photographs cross-continent? is there any advocay to change the situation? if anyone knows...pls do share. tks
at kishani read the wired article but yes there are advocacy groups working on this problem of over incarceration generally, and specifically with regards to juvenile incarceration.
To be very clear, I am not an architect. But I do love architecture and its practice. I also love the world and my brothers and sisters inside it, all of them.
Id just like to point out there is a lawsuit being filed by the ACLU here in Texas where some of our prisoners apparently might be dying in our prisons because temperatures can reach 115 degrees here in the summer and this results in prisons which are made of lots of concrete being up to 130 degrees at times. Thus some fancy liberals think that this might cause older criminals to die sooner than they would have if they had not committed the crimes they have been convicted of committing.
Yes those crazy liberals are trying to get us to spend more money trying to fix broken people with big problems when we want nothing more than to separate ourselves from them so we do not have to see their suffering. I have spoken to some of my conservative friends who have made comments such as "Well, they are criminals and we do not want people thinking prison is a good place to go live." I personally have no problem paying taxes to punish people who break our laws as a deterrent to further crime. However if the results are that we end up with more desperation and less security in our whole society because of the decisions we make to punish people who break our laws then this is clearly not a system that works and it needs to be changed as we move forward as a society.
I was a troubled youth. I am astounded to hear stories about how stressed out people including police officers are mistreating people including our youth. I believe we can and should engineer systems which produce abundance not more desperation.
I live in a municipal utility district. It is ran by a corporation and we do not get into fights about every little issue. If an issue arises and we need to come to a decision which involves public input then there are public meetings. I attended the Town Hall last week and met our new county commissioner, sheriff, constable, and justice of the peace. The next morning the sheriff was in our community near one of our elementary schools with a radar gun warning parents and other drivers who were speeding to drop their kids off at school on time. Our area is experiencing lots of growth.
I hear a whole bunch from my liberal friends often dissing for profit corporations and I believed much of their smack talk for many years. I now see things differently as I am getting older. I now realize everyone has a choice to make. No one is going to live forever and we cannot fix all of the worlds problems but we can and we should do our best to do our fair share. We are all shareholders here. We can all buy stock, even live stock if we choose. Or we can buy tax free municipal bonds or even securities and even mutual funds which reduces our risk of loss of our investments.
This is what I do when I attend a political march or talk to my neighbors about a candidate running for office whom I support. I labor for the betterment of our society and I raise the value of our shares. It is my belief that more of this kind of financial thinking should be spread throughout the USA and world. It has taken me decades to learn something that is foundational to society and that is simply wrong. I believe it started to fall apart when the schools stopped teaching civics and began teaching government. Same subject matter really, but while one word focuses on role of the individual the other focuses on the function of the whole. Perhaps that was a decision that someone made long ago for some better reason than I know of but I know this for certain the more I became aware of the fact that Civic Engagement could give me a voice and that in the end we are all acting with Civility, I was awoken to a better way and I speak with my voice even asking questions at times which other people in the room may not know. Such as one I asked the other day which was What is the difference in a Sheriff and a Police Officer? The Sheriff answered and explained that it could become complex but that in the end the Sheriff works in the portions of the county that are unincorporated and the Police work in the city or town.
There are small towns in Colorado which often are forced to function without law enforcement for budgetary reasons. I did not like California, so I moved away. I am not saying these kids have that choice. Clearly there are places with higher levels of poverty and poor education and where children are hungry and their parents are perhaps suffering from addiction as well as other physical ailments. But I tell you this too, I have heard a man sing from his heart a song of gospel so moving and touching in that place that I cried. I was touched and I know he worked hard to find that voice and I know he practiced that song and he sang it well and I felt his spirit move my heart and my mind.
And this is why these children need better, because someday they will sing and someday they will make the world better. But its going to take work and we cannot give up and we must work together to engineer a solution and make changes where changes are required and let remain what does not require changing. I wish it were not so difficult. I wish everyone could get along and I wish everyone did not have to fight each other and I wish that no one would ever have to suffer alone.
Lately, I have been remembering the early 80s and old episodes of television, mostly because I cannot seem to find trousers that are not so skinny I feel uncomfortable wearing them. I found an old one that might fit in here. Bionic Woman and specifically the episode about not going off the reservation. Its creepy to think about. It was from a time period where Native Americans were in focus also. Somehow the concept really stuck and perhaps even my teachers would refer to it as I got older and all the kids all knew what it meant.
Last week I witnessed a neighbor an older lady make the kids get into the garage because she was going to drive the car and she wanted all the kids to get into that garage so she would not have to worry if they were going to dart out into the street. It was totally hilarious and really made me laugh hard. The simple fact that kids are not grown ups helps to think about too. Adults have rights and freedoms, kids do too but not as many yet. Not saying they should be locked in jails, not at all. Infact the opposite. They should be free to play and not get into trouble. They should be guided and instructed and clothed and fed and loved.
Keep up the good work!
Some White Guy
Recall the Million Dollar Blocks project.
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