Through the Eyes of the Judged (autobiographical sketches by incarcerated young men)

Eight young men in Washington State invite you to see their lives through these autobiographies. They tell their stories from behind the wall and invite you to see beyond the false images and stereotypes. These guys tell about robberies, drugs and guns. They tell about cops and trials and jail. They tell about being young in Thailand, growing upon on a reservation, or in a neighborhood in Spokane. Their memories and life experiences up to this point glitter with detail and pound with powerful truth. The stories are their bones, their hands and their eyes. It is a gift to read them. They are, at once, the most visible and invisible populations. Sensationalized media transforms teenagers into violent maniacs without hope of change, people without pasts or futures. Incarcerated juveniles get erased and become invisible despite the spotlight. The spotlight lies. The details, context, and background of the accused remain unseen. They have mothers and sisters and brothers and histories. Their lives happen over days, months and years, and much of it happens behind a barbed wire fence. Incarcerated people's lives are erased by a public and politic that wants an easy answer to the difficult problem of crime.Johnathan Smith is the author of 'Through the Eyes of the Judged (autobiographical sketches by incarcerated young men)' with ISBN 9780971936911 and ISBN 0971936919.