Juvenile Justice Examined Through Photographs
As lawyers working within the California juvenile justice system, we don’t necessarily see what happens after a petition is sustained and a juvenile gets remanded to custody. But now we can get a glimpse of that part of the story through the photographs of Richard Ross, a Getty Museum Principal Photographer and former Guggenheim Fellow.
Ross has spent the past five years photographing over 1,000 juvenile detainees in lockups and camps across the country, including California. A sample of his images are published in the current issue of Harper’s Magazine and on the photographer’s website.
In the introduction to his collection (titled “Juvenile-In-Justice”), Ross writes that his images are “unbiased photographic and textual evidence of a system that houses more than 100,000 kids every day.” His medium, he writes, “is a conscience.”
Our medium as lawyers is legal process…but hopefully it’s also a process infused with conscience. Our California Criminal Defense Attorneys operating within the California juvenile justice system appreciate the opportunity to view and reflect upon photographs and other artistic works that bring a different sensibility and perspective to the work we do.