?Incarceration Helped Me Find My Voice?

Coming from areas labeled “gang territory” — a distinction largely reserved for communities of color — that have experienced generations of neglect and aggressive policing, many young people enter the system on “gang related” charges as children.Mr. Frank, who himself was a juvenile offender, said that instead of addressing the root causes of violence with community development or jobs programs in working-class areas, the police aggressively sweep minority neighborhoods to rack up arrest figures. At the same time, he has been looking at programs that offer nontraditional approaches to reducing recidivism.“I had my own run-ins with the law; a lot of the people that I’m photographing now, I see myself in them and I think, The only difference is you didn’t get out and I did,” Mr. Frank said. I’ve ridden with police gang units, shadowed former gang members as they reach out with advice to a younger generation, and photographed California’s last remaining youth prison work camp (which for many young offenders is their first extended experience with nature).