Customer Reviews

No Place for Children: Voices from Juvenile Detention

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Steve's work is this book is utterly amazing. His insight into the lives of these children is insightful. The photography truly speaks to you - you feel the photos in your heart - you can hear these kids speaking to you from the pages.

Steve has done a fantastic job of showing many of us a whole different side of life.

Mr. Liss has managed to capture the humanity of this forgotten group of youth with an obvious awareness of his subject material. Having worked with similar youth, I found the book heartbreaking. I have a copy on my coffee-table, and have purchased several copies for friends and acquaintences. We should be doing better for our children...

This is an excellent book for all who work with youth. the pictures are amazing and an eye opener for sure.

I worked with Steve on this book for over 2 years. The photography is simply amazing, incredible reproduction and a vastly under reported story. I recommend it without reservation.

I'd like to see this book released in a smaller paperback edition, instead of the 'coffee table format' which is oversized, heavy and not conducive to reading. The message that the book conveys is vitally important, and should be easier to read and take along with you. The fonts chosen make the text almost impossible to read on some pages, as the color melts into the page. I'd like to be able to read this and buy copies for others to read as well. Maybe that's a strange complaint, that a coffee table book should have been published as a mass-market or trade paperback, but this is an important book that should be made widely available to encourage more people to buy it.


The photographs are simple and disturbing. The author readily acknowledges that some juveniles deserve to be behind bars, but not all of them are criminals. In Texas, as in most states, status offenders (runaways, habitual truants) are housed in juvenile detention centers with accused rapists and murderers. The child who enters the doors of the juvenile hall as a status offender may very well leave as a budding criminal, even after just a few weeks of being locked up.

The story isn't unique to Texas. Children who need mental health services, diversion programs, and drug rehab are out of luck if their families aren't well-insured. Like the adult prisons of America, our juvenile halls have become a dumping ground for children and young adults who are mentally ill or addicted to drugs. The author doesn't try to come up with pie in the sky solutions, because there aren't any to be found.