Susan Madden LankfordBesprekingen

Short version: Not worth reading.

Longer version:

Due to the sensitive nature of the topics approached within Lankford's work, an honest review is both difficult and necessary. It would be easy to cave in to societal pressures and state that the book was an enlightening glimpse into another world etc., but the actuality of the matter is simply that I find the methods of the authors abhorrent and the psychology within the text justifying those methods vile. One reason above all stands out for such harsh words: The key people in the text - namely, the children being interviewed - have their stories, voices, dreams, and potentially their psyche's well-being altered, ignored, or dismissed outright by the juxtaposition of irrelevant images or leading questions.

Throughout the interviews and the questionnaires, the children (and that term is debatable with several of the older ones) are drawn into certain thought patterns by the phrasing of the interviewer or test. Page 110 contains a sample of a series of questions demonstrating such technique to elicit pathos. To summarize, the first question directly inquires about Bass' (the 15 year old boy answering) family. "Do you have any family members that have been, or are in jail or prison?" The implication is clearly an expectation of a yes. And while this may seem a reasonable question for a person in juvenile hall (perhaps in misguided effort to understand family influences), what crosses the reasonable line is the ordering of the following questions. Directly after bringing together the ideas of family and jail/prison in the young person's mind, the next question asks what the most memorable event in the past is for the interviewee. As if that were not enough, the third question in the snippet does not even bother with subtlety regarding its kangaroo nature, putting words into Bass' mouth by starting with the statement, "I am a young person scared about the future."

Questions and interviews of this sort could, easily, be seen as a form of emotional abuse or brainwashing. Rather than continue this review and possibly generate sales for Lankford, I'm simply going to end it at that. The only potential value such a work has is as a sadistic example of how to manipulate emotional and high-pressure scenarios.

This should be required reading for anyone who works with kids. I would highly recommend for teachers, social workers, and churches. The photos, stories, and drawings, included are bound to touch you heart and make you feel for these children. The author does a wonderful job of getting in touch with these kids and making a connection with them. This is not a fun read that anyone would pick up for enjoyment. BUT, it is very educational and offers a ton of insight and suggestions. All of the children touched upon here are crying out for love, attention, and role models. The author is suggesting that it doesn't take much for you to have an impact on a child, both negative and positive. One missed opportunity can change a child's life into negative, but one little bit of time spent with that child can leave a lasting postive impact. Bravo Ms. Lankford, keep up the good work! Thanks so much for caring, and for all the work you do and have done!

This book isn't something that is going to make you feel light hearted and breezy like a feather, it's a gritty, important book. Some people didn't like the size of it - but I found the size gave the information the space it needed -- your eyes needed places to rest while grappling with tough content. I think this book (and the larger series) should be in high schools around the country. This wasn't an easy book by any means, but it made me think, it made me look at kids and families differently and it challenged my assumptions -- which are all important life activities.

My first (and biggest) complaint about this book is its size - about the size of a newspaper tabloid - which makes it difficult to read. Maybe because the author relied on photography & reproduced writing samples as part of their narrative process she felt this would enhance the book's appeal. It does not.

And that is a shame because Susan Madden Lankford has an important (and heartbreaking) story to tell. Born, Not Raised speaks to a whole class of children that the larger society mostly ignores or vilifies. They come from dysfunctional homes, attend sub-standard schools (when they go at all) and are easily attracted into the life of street gangs.

Ms. Lankford and her daughter, Polly, spent two years interviewing and working with the young inmates of Juvenile Hall in San Diego. In these kids' own words the reader gets a vivid description of the lives of anger, fear and despair that most of these young inmates live.

The message to anyone reading this book should be clear. We cannot afford to throw away an entire generation of children to the criminal justice system. I don't know the answers, and quite frankly, I don't think the author does either. But at least she realizes that we have a horrible problem.

While it may have seemed a great idea to make a book equal parts art photography, photojournalism, personal narrative, qualitative survey data (presented raw), participant observation/activism reports (but no field notes), Freudian and developmental psychological evaluations, and a vague call to action through education, I find this book a bit scattered.

The pictures are what they are, but the majority of the book is unfocused rambling about the very real social problem of crime and delinquency among urban youth. I am unsure whether the author's participant observation even qualifies as social science research. Their stated guiding question was "How did these kids get into this mess?" Their access to participants was severely restricted, but the book gives the impression that of what time they had, most of it was spent with a mere handful of youths. Further, as research, it should be composed with rigorous standards of accuracy with thick descriptions, frequent references to field notes, and a professional tone. It was not. As research this fails.

As narrative, it feels hollow. The day to day lives of the kids in the hall is not fully described. The hall doesn't even seem to exist in much of the narrative-- it is focused on the room in which the meetings and discussions took place. I didn't feel at any point as though I had really gotten to know or understand the perspective of any given participant. Rather, the book was written from the perspective of the author, and much of it is about her struggle to get to know the participants.

Lastly, and this is perhaps what disappointed me most about it, it refuses to discuss issues of race. Refusing to acknowledge the systemic racial inequalities in our society and their role in urban youth violence is purposeful. The author strives for colorblindness throughout the book, even when the participants' experiences of race and discrimination would add to the narrative. As such, this book is fundamentally flawed.

A powerful book about the juvenile prison system and how youth end up there. The author includes actual hand written notes from the youth talking about different aspects of their lives, such as first memory, family, etc. These writings paint a portrait of how children end up in the juvenile justice system.

Each chapter covers different topics. One of the most interesting for me was early childhood and the psychological aspects needed to grow up with social and emotional health. As an early learning professional I related to many of the aspects written about. In this chapter the author interviewed a psychlogist who shed light on why some of the youth were incarcerated.

This book is a remarkable window into the lives of the young people so many in our society have already forgotten. What's most stunning (other than the statistic and other info) is the impression that the children - and make no mistake, many are still children - understand how little other people expect of them.

The entry I found most haunting was on in which someone filling out the author's survey added unbidden to the top 'Don't forget me.' Don't worry - after this book that simply won't be possible.

This book does an excellent job of making the reader feel and understand at least a little of what these kids go through. Everyone should have to read this book! It is heartbreaking to think of all of the children who are so damaged through no fault of there own. Everyone needs to read this book!

I'm going to need about a hundred more copies of this book. As a person who is currently transitioning from being a Chemical Dependency Social Worker to being a Children's Mental Health Social Worker, I found it incredibly timely and useful for me to receive this book at this time. The insight into the contributing factors and developmental arrests that lead to juvenile incarceration and dependency on the system was remarkable. The sadness the reader feels as discovering the thoughts and dreams, however stunted, these kids have chosen to share is heartbreaking. One can tell that just by listening to these kids, the author and her daughter have made a difference in their lives, which just goes to show how needy these kids are and how little it would really take to help them be successful. Unfortunately in our society, enough importance is not placed here, where it should be. Politicians pay a lot of lip service to "children are our future" but then funnel the dollars to back up that statement every other place possible. This book would go a long way to raise awareness if every elected leader would just read it.
The only, tiny thing I could possibly take issue with is that there is not enough prescriptive at the end towards what can be done to fix the system. I realize this isn't a handbook for providers, and that the intent is to raise awareness, but I think even a layperson could use a little more information about how the needs of these children could be met.
Overall, a very important book that everyone, in the field or not, should read. It should inspire you to become a Kinship Partner or a Big Brother/Big Sister at the very least.½

I was suitably impressed with this book. It's not what I expected. It's definitely written for an adult audience and not a YA one, and there's very little moralizing here. What Lankford does instead is provide a straightforward look at life inside a juvenile facility in the words of the juveniles there. It's a remarkable read in that the individual voices really shine through. Lankford, probably deliberately, lets them speak for themselves and adds very little commentary. I really appreciated that. There is a brief call to action at the end with some ideas about how these children can be helped.

It was a really powerful read and I highly recommend it.

Voices is the third volume in a trilogy of photo essays in which Lankford documents the experiences of marginal populations: the homeless, women in prison, and now incarcerated children. The book is a collage of voices, including photographs and reproductions of worksheets and essays completed by the youth Lankford worked with in prison alongside Lankford's own reflections, transcribed interviews, and commentary by mental health professionals and workers within the system.The historian in me was frustrated at times with what felt like heavy-handed analysis. The adult commentary meant to interpret young peoples' words and pictures for the reader smacked of condescension toward youth and reader alike. I felt sometimes that the project could have benefited from community-based analysis (e.g. the young people synthesizing and analyzing their experience, and perhaps utilizing the project as a springboard for social change). At the same time, I appreciate Lankford's empathic approach, and her liberal use of primary source materials which allow us some type of access to the inner lives of the marginalized and vulnerable.

This book and the two others of the trilogy, Maggots in my Sweet Potatoes and DownTown U.S.A, should be required reading for anyone who knows people, judges people, cares about, pities or disdains people, those people being the marginalized of our society.

In this newest book, Susan and daughter Polly tackle the prickly problem of teens who are living in Juvenile Hall, essentially prison for children. Ms. Lankford's photography is astounding. Her writing is beautiful. But most importantly, she lets the people she and Polly interview speak for themselves.

She has asked some of these teens to write stories or write about themselves or answer questionnaires. That she printed the actual written responses made these writings all the more powerful. Poor penmanship (I can relate), bad grammar, misspellings, even the occasional i dotted with little a circle as so many teen girls do, but lots and lots of heart and honesty. Violence, heartbreak, hardened shells hiding broken children, it's all there for the reading.

Unlike the other books, this one does not have photos of the children interviewed because despite the horrible things some of them have done, they are still children. The photos in the book, both those taken by Ms. Lankford and those taken by others and used for children to write about, are perfect.

This trilogy is so full of compassion and understanding without crossing that treacherous line into being maudlin. The author doesn't excuse the behavior but explains it. When I read the first book, Maggots in My Sweet Potatoes, about incarcerated women, I was very impressed but I doubted Ms. Lankford's ability to live up to that first book. Silly me. The second, DownTown U.S.A., affected me even more. By the time I got to this book, I expected great things and I was not disappointed. I highly recommend it as well as the other two.

I was lucky to receive a copy of this book from the author. I almost wish I hadn't because of the possibility that readers will think my review is so positive because I got something free. I would be gushing just as much about this book even if I'd spent my own hard-earned dollars for it. I'm an unabashed fan.

Through photographs, interviews, statistics and other exhaustive research, photographer and first-time author Lankford captures from all angles the experience of women inmates confined to a typical jail in San Diego County. Interviews with jail officials, from deputies to counselors to directors, reveal exhausted, often jaded individuals who lack the resources to do their jobs properly; one deputy says that ""98 percent of inmates have drug histories,"" but funding levels barely keep inmates in food and housing, much less rehab programs. As such, California's ""three strikes"" law sends women to jail for life without ever offering them a chance at getting clean. Kristina Edwards came to jail pregnant on charges ranging from kidnapping to attempted murder, crimes she claimed she was too high to recall even being involved with; Lankford follows her progress, like other inmates', with care and compassion. Delivering her baby chained to a hospital bed, Edwards becomes a symbol of the cycle in which she's trapped, a fate often presaged by parental abandonment and neglect. Informative, frank, relentless and disturbing, the book's strong voices and stark format-black and white photos, transcribed Q&As, pull-quotes from subjects and experts-are completely absorbing, raising important questions about why women end up in jail and, too often, keep coming back.
–Publishers Weekly

Each of the homeless we met was unique from one another. No one was quite like Papa. Papa wasn't like Michael. Neither of them was like Jed, nor did they even like Jed. Funny how a term like “homeless” could dictate how society read people who lived on the street.

Photojournalist Susan Madden Lankford rented an old jail in San Diego because she thought it would be great for commercial photography. Instead, it lead her to create a beautiful, insightful look at the homeless, the second in a trilogy of books addressing social issues that affect all of us, even when we don't realize it.

The black-and-white photography is stark, beautiful, touching, and the book is worthy on that basis alone. When you read the stories behind the photos, you can't help but be moved. For most of us lucky ones, the concept of homelessness is almost unimaginable. We may be disgusted by the homeless, blame them, wonder for a brief moment about how they ended up as they are, and we may even have sympathy for them. We may give them a buck or two or we may ignore them, pretend they are invisible to us. But we too often think of them as a group, not as individuals.

Ms. Lankford doesn't just write about this strata of society, she talks to them. She tells us what they have to say. She quotes them and photographs them as we discover their stories. She doesn't gush or preach. She doesn't judge. She shows.

Yes, many of them have serious mental issues. Yes, many of them abuse drugs and alcohol. Many of them sell themselves. And some are mean, cruel people that I wouldn't like under the best of circumstances. But many others are good people who have made bad mistakes or are incapable of living as the rest of us do. They've fallen through the cracks and too often there is no way up.

There are dogs in these stories, lots of dogs like Pep and Misery. Some are loved and given the best care that their people can manage. Some are not. They, too, fall through the cracks, and they can break your heart.

I loved the first book of this trilogy, Maggots in My Sweet Potatoes: Women Doing Time, about incarcerated women. I didn't expect this one to live up to the high standards set by it, and I was entirely wrong. The third book, Born, Not Raised, is due for publication this month, and I can't imagine that I will be disappointed in it. Note: I just have learned that this newest book will be released on September 1, 2011, not this month as I had thought.

Thank you to the author and Humane Exposures Publishing for giving me a copy of Downtown U.S.A., but that did not affect my review. I love this book.

Maggots in my Sweet Potatoes is an impressive book, impressive in that you will come away with an expanded and perhaps new impression of what life is like in a women's jail. Ms. Lankford is a photojournalist and this large format (~13” x ~10”) book is filled with stark black and white photos. It is not, however, just another coffee table book. The author follows the stories of real people and this book should be read, not just thumbed through.

Jails are very different than prisons. In jails, there is such a mixture of serious criminals and the truly innocent who can't post bail while awaiting trial. There are people there who should be in prison but are in jail because of the prisons' overcrowding. There are the mentally ill who need treatment, and there are those who pretend to be mentally ill so they can scam the system. It is a very mixed society, and difficult to deal with.

The author has a great deal of empathy for the people she interviews, but she doesn't get overly fluffy about it, does not excuse the wrong things that have been done by them. She does, however, explain how their early lives filled with poverty and crime made it more likely that these women would end up in jail and prison than most of us would. Of course, that isn't always the case. There was the well-educated interior decorator who charged thousands on a credit card that wasn't hers (oops, don't you hate it when that happens?). The book is also about how we, as a society, have not found the solution, how people who can be rehabilitated are often instead made worse by incarceration. Huge amounts of money and numbers of lives are wasted because we do not know how to handle these criminals.

This book is part of a trilogy that includes Downtown U.S.A., and the not-yet published Born, Not Raised, to be published in May 2011, and I look forward to reading both of those. This book is beautiful but I have one small quibble: although the layout is lovely to view, some of the text is too small to read easily, especially for such a large and heavy book. And I want to be able to read it all.

Thank you to the publisher (Humane Exposures) and the author for giving me a copy of the book.½

"A compassionate call to action... Lankford argues that most inmates can transform their traumatic histories into productive maturity if sustained by just one “good enough” adult."
Publishers Weekly - http://www.publishersweekly.com/978-0-9792366-3-1