CBS NEWS: Photographer Richard Ross captured images of over 1,000 juvenile inmates housed in over 200 detention centers and correctional facilities throughout the U.S. and Canada. According to his website, the “Juvenile in Justice” project explores the “treatment of American juveniles housed by law in facilities that treat, confine, punish, assist and, occasionally, harm them. The hope is that by seeing these images, people will have a better understanding of the conditions that exist,” he writes on his website. The following images contain excerpts from interviews conducted by Ross with several young inmates. The photos were shot between 2005 and 2012. The “Juvenile in Justice” exhibit premiered at the Nevada Museum of Art in Reno, Nev., in August 2012. A companion book is available now. In this photo, a 12-year-old inmate is seen here in a detention center located in Biloxi, Mississippi. MORE
RELATED: Winner of the 2012 Best News and Documentary Photography Award from the American Society of Magazine Editors for a selection published in Harper’s Magazine, Richard Ross’Juvenile in Justice open our eyes to the world of the incarceration of American youth. The nearly 150 images in this book were made over 5 years of visiting more than 1,000 youth confined in more than 200 juvenile detention institutions in 31 states. These riveting photographs, accompanied by the life stories that these young people in custody shared with Ross, give voice to imprisoned children from families that have no resources in communities that have no power. With essays by Ira Glass of National Public Radio’s This American Life and Bart Lubow, Director of the Annie E. Casey Foundation’s Juvenile Justice Strategy Group. MORE
RELATED: Approximately 70,000 young people are in detention or correctional facilities every day in the United States. According to the American Correctional Association, the average cost to incarcerate a juvenile for a 9-12 month period is between $66,000 and $88,000. In California, the cost is $224,712. Alameda County spends $4945 annually for a child in the Oakland public school system. MORE