Young men play a flag football game, self-refereed, during their recreation time in the Orientation Training Phase of Pueblo, Colorado’s Youth Offender System.

The Orientation Training Phase (OTP) of the Youth Offender System (YOS) in Pueblo, Colorado performs both intake and assessment of convicted juveniles. This facility is run boot camp style, with staff screaming commands to the kids constantly. All juveniles here are under juvenile sentences with adult sentences hanging: a mess-up at OTP means they will have to serve their adult sentence. For example, a kid could be there serving a two year juvenile sentence with 15 years hanging. In the juvenile detention system, rarely do they allow contact sports– even flag football.

I’ve been here for… seven months, for Grand Theft Auto.

- M, left, age 17

This time? I’ve been in for six days. For drinking. But I’ve been here six or seven times before. 

 - A, right, age 15

E (left) and A (right) were both underage workers at Agriprocessors, Inc, a kosher slaughterhouse in Postville, Iowa when it was raided by the ICE.

I was 15 when I left home, I am 18 now. My mother sold tortillas and my father sold things on the street. I have six sisters and one brother.  My mother did not want me to leave. I left alone, then met up with seven women and a coyote. We went through the desert and then we took an inflatable boat. When I got here [to Postville, Iowa], everything was so different, the food was different. At the factory my job was to cut chicken into parts and clean it. I worked 14 hours a day, 6 days a week. I was 16 years old, I worked for 11 months before the raid. … Read More »

Teenagers are a liquid state–Pure plastic.  They take the form that is the least resistance. They flow onto horizontal surfaces and swim on floors or benches.

Probably three-quarters of the girls have been sexually abused, usually in the form of date rape. It’s always a case when too many drugs and alcohol are involved. Mistakes, you know.