Steve Liss is a photographer and activist who has photographed juvenile offenders and been a major social justice activist. He taught us how the juvenile correctional system is one that hurts, not helps the youth incarcerated. The United States spend 6 billion dollars on the juvenile justice system. 200,000 juveniles are sentenced each year as adults and the recidivism rate is 66%. Steve Liss has a gallery of photos and raises awareness on this social justice issue. Many people come visit his gallery every year to admire his brilliant, and frightening, work. Steve Liss gave us firsthand accounts of what he saw inside these correctional facilities. He saw children, some younger than us, shackled up in chains. He told us stories of children our age being suicidal. One girl wanted to see here mom who had recently passed away. She attempted suicide 5 times. After the fifth time Steve asked her if she regretted the last suicide attempt. She said that the only thing she regretted was that she didn’t die. They were fed meager portions of food and were forced to experience brutal violence every day. We are meeting again with Steve to find out how we can help. He is getting us print outs of his pictures of incarcerated juveniles. He is also sending us recordings of his interviews. This includes one with a 15 year old boy who killed his nieghbor because he thought he saw the devil. The kid was severely mentally ill, and needed help. Instead he was sentenced to decades in prison. We hope to work with Steve again
