08.22.09
Richard Ross | Gallery

No Place Like Home


Juvenile Detention Facility Challenge Program, El Paso, Texas, 2008

I am working on a project, "Suitable Placement: Juvenile Justice in America." For the past four years, I have been documenting spaces that surround juveniles....high schools, courts, juvenile detention centers, foster homes, group homes. Probably the most enlightened program for dealing with juveniles in distress is in Missouri; many others are ties for worst. When a federal administrator was brought into the Cook County (Illinois) Juvenile Detention Center, a 498-bed facility, he was introduced with the words, "Welcome to the Gates of Hell." I am thinking of using this as a subtitle.

As opposed to the adult system, however, there seems to be a movement toward rehabilitation and correction rather than incarceration and abandonment. Leading the way in this movement is the Annie E. Casey Foundation. I am quite happy to be working with them on this project. What began as a sequel/offshoot to my Architecture of Authority work has evolved into a magnum opus and is consuming me on many levels. —Richard Ross

Posted in: Architecture, Photography



Comments [3]

i graduated sucesfully from the challenge program in 2009. i was one of the ones datt got recycle by MR.CAVEMACK.

03.22.10
03:18

It's good to see that some people involved in nice projects involved in juvenile justice. It's also nice to hear that it is more focused on rehab and correction.
Fletch
04.05.10
01:57

Ha-Ha. I was in challenge. And I dont wanna go back. Hell no.. It sucks In there but the good thing Is that they take you out for projects.
Christian I Alvarado
07.21.10
03:46


Jobs | March 28