"I'm Inocent"

By Margaret Lyons in Miscellaneous on Dec 24, 2007 6:31PM

Lauri Apple (aka Insomnia Jones, JD) took these affecting photos outside the Illinois Youth Center Chicago, a level 3 minimum security facility for juvenile male offenders on Western and Maypole.

Some kids flashed Vice Lords gang symbols, some danced, and two kids tried to write us a note and show it through the window, but it was way too dark, and they were way too high up there in the jail. My friend started dancing for them -- they liked that. Two boys in one window started to do a side-to-side dance, which I copied. They liked that, too. ...
At first, I was kind of concerned that taking these photos was somehow exploitative. We're out there standing on the street, enjoying our little free world lives with our relatively expensive cameras, just watching these kids who are being caged up in a building. But the kids seemed to be really into it. Someone was paying attention to them. Maybe they wouldn't be in jail if more people had paid attention to them, acknowledged their needs as human beings.

Enormous thanks to Ms. Apple for sharing her thoughts and photos with us.