My commitment charges are fighting, smoking (weed), truancy… but mostly running away. My hair is corn-rowed by myself and my friends.

Yeah I guess the way I dress tells people I am in a gang—the baggy sweats, black tee shirt and white sneakers. That’s more or less the uniform we get but it is also the attitude you carry with you.

Both sets of juveniles in the images above are in residential treatment programs. Missouri (top) allows them to dress in casual clothing; Massachusetts (below) has them wearing scarlet jump suits.

I’ve been in SEC (Soaring Eagles Cottage) two years for armed robbery. We get to wear whatever clothes we want. Yeah, my philosophy is you should ALWAYS give someone another chance. 

30 years ago, Missouri closed their training schools (think big, with concertina wire and guards) and replaced them with smaller facilities like group homes (think small, cottage-y, with more specialists and less guards). In 2010, Annie E. Casey foundation published a report on the benefits of the Missouri Model featuring Juvenile-in-Justice images.

I’m from St. Louis, the north side. I’m hoping to be released in four months, no later. My release date depends on my levels, levels of achievements. It’s pretty O.K here, we can wear our own clothes.

- B.D, age 16