Juvenile In Justice

What a powerful, important book. Having read it, I'm very happy it won an Alex Award last year.

I enjoyed Ira Glass's forward but even more than that I enjoyed Bart Lubow's preface calling out Ira Glass's forward for focusing on violent teen offenders when so many teens in the American juvenile justice system are NOT there for violent crimes but rather for stupid bullshit. (OK that's not exactly what he said.)

Richard Ross's photographs of teens in juvenile detention centers and of the centers themselves are very powerful, as are the brief statements collected from teens and the few carefully chosen statistics/quotes that are pulled out onto blank text pages between the photos.

“‘What percentage of girls have been sexually abused when they come here?' ‘What percentage? Every one. All 88 girls in our custody.'”

“Black youth are 9 times as likely to be sentenced to adult prisons as white youth.”

“Children as young as 11 have been sentenced to life without the possibility of parole.”

Very well done and effective. Highly recommended for teens and adults. Definitely recommended for libraries to purchase for their collections–I had trouble ordering it here but fought for it based on its subject matter and its Alex Award, and I'm glad I did.