If all children are born pure and innocent, how do they end up in in detention? Are they genetically predisposed, does their environment play a factor, is society responsible and what can be done to prevent their incarceration? These are the tough questions Susan Lankford tackles in her book, Born, Not Raised: Voices From Juvenile Hall.
Photo by Susan Madden Lankford
Photojournalist and anthropologist, Lankford became aware of America’s disenfranchised in our streets, the emotionally and physically incarcerated, children in juvenile hall and in unsettled homes and began to turn her camera lens and energy on their lives and challenges.
Born, Not Raised is the third part of a trilogy exposing the lives of America’s downtrodden. Maggots in My Sweet Potatoes: Women Doing Time and downTown U.S.A.: A Personal Journey with the Homeless are the first two books in the award-winning series. Her executive-produced film, It’s More Expensive to Do Nothing takes an in-depth look at a central crisis in the American criminal justice system, stressing the social and economic value of remediation.
In the final volume of her trilogy on interlinked social issues, Lankford explores the troubled psyches of young people incarcerated in San Diego’s Juvenile Hall. The perspectives of psychiatrists, neuroscientists and experts in the field of juvenile justice—combined with striking contributions elicited from the youths themselves—underscore the social and neurobiological impacts of childhood trauma.
Born, Not Raised aims to have a dramatic impact on social policy with its powerful call to action for educators, social workers, psychologists, criminal justice and corrections professionals, as well as parents and parents-to-be.
Lankford says:
I am convinced that early education and youth development are the most effective strategies for breaking the cycle of at-risk behavior and helping our country’s youth thrive.
Born, Not Raised explores: 1) Early childhood development as a determinant for young people turning, or not turning, into at-risk youths; 2) teen pregnancy and gang membership as markers for far more serious and pervasive social issues; 3)
the need for stronger public education and charter schools; 4) programs that work to initiate and excite at-risk youths about learning, discovering and finding their strengths and talents and 5) the critical need for a good-enough, consistent, loving and nurturing figure in the life of a child – especially for children in foster care, and single parent homes.
Lankford adds:
As a society, we can’t afford to ignore those who are marginalized, stuck in the emptiness of poverty, family violence, abuse, or addiction. Together we must search for solutions so that a beautiful life is possible for all the children who are born into and, when necessary, raised by a caring larger society.
