Youth in Prison
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. America locks up children at more than six times the rate of any other developed nation. On any given night, there are approximately 60,500 youth confined in juvenile correctional facilities or other residential programs. These children often suffer from conditions of psychological, physical and sexual abuse, homelessness, suicide attempts, addiction, and illiteracy.
Every day the inmates get smaller, and more confused about what brought them here. Psychiatrists say children do not react to punishment in the same way as adults. They learn more about becoming criminals than they do about becoming citizens. Nights alone can be enough to prove their suspicion that nobody cares.
Adults in Prison
Prisoners have been strategically isolated to the point of invisibility. The majority of recent prison construction has been tied to boosterism in depressed, post-industrial rural America. As a consequence, prisons are located in small towns, high deserts, and remote corners of states. For families of prisoners, visitation is prohibitively expensive and time-consuming. For the general public, the architecture of incarceration is hidden.
Jimmy Dennis
Executed after 25 years on death row
Troy Davis
Executed after 20 years on death row
Marcellus Williams
Executed in 2024 after 20 years on Death Row
