The United States of America is the global leader in incarceration. With just five percent of the world’s population, it is home to 25 percent of the world’s prisoners, including one-third of the world’s incarcerated women. Over 6.9 million people in the US are currently incarcerated, on probation or on parole. That’s one in 35 Americans and one in six Black men. In fact, there are more Black men in the criminal justice system today than there were enslaved in 1850.

How did it get to be like this? How did the “home of the free” become the world’s biggest jailer? How “just” is the U.S. criminal justice system?

Broken? is an exhibit of PROOF: Media for Social Justice, in partnership with the United Nations International School (UNIS) and participating Picture Justice students.

The exhibit aims to raise difficult questions and provoke conversations about what Michelle Alexander, author of The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness, calls “the most pressing racial justice issue of our time.” Broken? explores the U.S. criminal justice system through photographs and testimonies of formerly incarcerated people and of community leaders working for prison reform.

Produced by PROOF: Media for Social Justice, Broken? features the work of Picture Justice students who partnered with professional photographers, journalists and educators to conduct research on mass incarceration, learn ethical reporting and photojournalism techniques, and create this large-scale photo exhibition.

An ongoing partnership between PROOF and UNIS, Picture Justice is a creative photojournalism program designed to educate high school students about social justice issues and empower them with the tools and confidence they need to lead change in their own communities. Picture Justice fosters critical thinking and active citizenship, promotes compassion and empathy, and equips students with the communication skills they need to relay their experiences to the wider public.

Broken?

Featuring: Various Artists

Curated by: Leora Kahn

Locations

• #Incarceration
• #Photojournalism
• #Racism