According to the American Correctional Association, the average cost to incarcerate a juvenile for a 9 to 12 month period is between $66,000 and $88,000. It’s facts like this that artist Richard Ross tries to convey to the American people. Ross’s new exhibition “Juvenile in Justice” is currently being hosted at Augustana in the art museum.

“Juvenile in Justice” is a series of photos of the living conditions of kids who are charged as adults.

According to their website, www.juvenile-in-justice.com, “Juvenile In Justice is a project to document the placement and treatment of American juveniles housed by law in facilities that treat, confine, punish, assist and, occasionally, harm them.”

Children as young as seven years old are able to be charged as adults in 22 states and the District of Columbia.

Ever since Ross first learned about these numbers, he’s turned them into an artistic statement. He has been to more than 300 sites in 35 states, and has interviewed more than a thousand kids.

“Completing the project? It’s not complete. I’m still capturing it. That’s the hardest part,” said Ross. “Once you start doing it, the hardest part is trying to figure out how to disengage when in fact you’re talking to each kid and each voice has such a critical need it’s impossible to disengage.”

Students have already taken the initiative to visit the exhibit. Many appreciate that they are now more aware.

“I thought it was interesting from what I was looking at,” junior Patrick Yasutake said. “I hadn’t known the ages that some of these kids who go into the program are. It was informative.”

Other students felt an impact, as well.

“This exhibit has definitely made me more aware of a group of people who aren’t being treated right.  I’ve known that the prison system in the US is deeply flawed, but hadn’t really given much thought to the youth caught within it,” senior Melissa Chiodo said. “While I believe a lot of the adults in the prison system could benefit from rehabilitation instead of incarceration, I think the youth could benefit even more since they are still growing and developing.”

Claire Kovacs, Assistant Director of the Augustana Art Museum, is in charge of hosting Ross’s work. She said the exhibit is a collaborating between Augustana and the Figge Art Museum, and was funded by a grant from the National Endowment of the Arts.

“This exhibition is important to bring to… the Augustana community because it deals with asking questions around what could be seen as a problem in the justice systems of the United States today,” Kovacs said. “The photographs are not necessarily saying something about what should be done, or it’s necessarily good or bad, but at least it’s allowing a window into a world where we don’t necessarily engage with.”

“Juvenile in Justice” will be on display until April 18. The Augustana Art Museum is open from Tuesday through Saturday from 12 p.m. to 4 p.m. Entry is free of charge.

“It’s here for them to see if they’re interested in what we do as a society to kids without really a voice from families, without resources from neighborhoods without any power,” said Ross. “And this is the nadir of the American society what we’ve done to these kids… How do we do better?”