Richard Ross turns a lens on the placement and treatment of American juveniles housed by law in facilities that treat, confine, punish, assist and, occasionally, harm them.

Juvenile-in-justice has put the face on juveniles in the justice system.
While data is undeniably important, locating the numbers in the context of a real child is critical to creating empathy. Lives can be measured, but don’t resonate, in the sterile fluorescence of numbers, charts and trends. Data yearns to be articulated in the human experience in fragile voice and portrait to be truly understood and effectively used.
Juvenile-in-Justice is a collection of images, interviews and texts created over a dozen years, at 300 sites in 35 states, drawn from the lives of more than 1,000 kids. Working together with educational institutions and non-profits Richard Ross wanted to better understand and/or explain the needs, policies, strategies, and resources required to facilitate better outcomes for the 53,000+ children in custody every day.

The nearly 150 images in this book give voice to imprisoned children from families that have no resources in communities that have no power.