On our latest fieldwork our group was able to meet the esteemed photographer, Steve Liss, an expert on juvenile justice. Steve Liss spent over 2 years in a juvenile detention center Texas, photographing and learning from the inmates. He was first inspired to take on this line of work after visiting a juvenile incarceration center while on tour with president Bush. He said that the inmates were paraded around, going through motions and drills, Mr. Liss asked one of the guards what the center was usually like but was told it was a very different story normally. This display caused him to leave the White House’s service and go to another juvenile incarceration center in a Texas border town, and try to make a difference. Steve Liss stayed there for 2 years, photographing and socializing with the inmates, some of which were as young as 10. During his time there he saw many things and learned a great amount about the system, and after that time he published a book with all of the pictures he had taken. The goal of this was to make a I d of change, to do something good in the world. And it did, by publishing the book it raised enough awareness to have the old center torn down and a newer, modern center with drug rehab centers replacing it.

Photo of attempted suicide by an inmate, taken by Steve Liss