Psyched

Uncompromising Photos Expose Juvenile Detention in America

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.The resulting photo-survey, Juvenile-In-Justice, documents 350 facilities in over 30 states. It’s more than a peek into unseen worlds — it is a call to action and care.

“I grew up in a world where you solve problems, you don’t destroy a population,” says Ross. “To me it is an affront when I see the way some of these kids are dealt with.”

The U.S. locks up children at more than six times the rate of all other developed nations. The over 60,000 average daily juvenile lockups, a figure estimated by the Annie E. Casey Foundation (AECF), are also disproportionately young people of color. With an average cost of $80,000 per year to lock up a child, the U.S. spends more than $5 billion annually on youth detention. On top of the cost, in its recent report No Place for Kids, the AECF presents evidence to show that youth incarceration does not reduce recidivism rates, does not benefit public safety and exposes those imprisoned to further abuse and violence. Ross thinks his images of juvenile lock-ups can, and should, be “ammunition” for the ongoing policy and funding debates between reformers, staff, management and law-makers.

“Some of these kids really don’t stand a chance at all. Have they committed crimes? Yes. But has society failed in the social contract to keep these kids in a safe environment? Absolutely.”

(Source: sunrec)

fuckyeahmarxismleninism:

New York City: Protesters hold books about Chicano and Mexican American history that have been banned by the Tucson, Ariz., School District in its racist campaign against students of color. At the New York Public Library, March 10, 2012.

Photos by redguard

On January 10, 2012 the Tucson Unified School District in Arizona voted to suspend its Mexican American Studies Program after a judge ruled that it violated a new state law and could lose millions in aid for a particular school district. This is another racist message from Arizona’s elite to people of color and especially Latinos of Mexican descent. That message is: get back, get down, your lives are worth nothing to this system. 

According to news sources, 60% of the 53,000 students in that school district are Latino/a. Arizona is ground zero for vile anti-immigrant legislation. Reminiscent of book burnings in Nazi Germany, after the ruling, school officials began to gather up any books that dealt with Chicano or Mexican American history. Sometimes those books were gathered up right in front of the students who had come to class to study their history. 

The books in question include “500 Years of Chicano History in Pictures,” edited by Elizabeth Martinez; “Message to AZTLAN,” by Rodolfo Corky Gonzales; “Occupied America: A History of Chicanos,” by Rodolfo Acuña; “Pedagogy of the Oppressed,” by Paulo Freire and “Rethinking Columbus: The Next 500 Years,” edited by Bill Bigelow and Bob Peterson, as well as a reading by Shakespeare. 

Repression breeds Resistance. A group of writers, journalists, activists and many in the literary field have heroically launched Librotraficante in Houston Texas and elsewhere. The idea of organizing a caravan to Arizona and gathering funds to take the banned books in the caravan has caught on fire like a scorched tree in a desert heat storm. It has excited Chicanos/Mexicanos, academics, students and progressive people everywhere in defiance of racism in Arizona. 

For more info on Librotraficante visit http://www.librotraficante.com/