THE PODCAST
Booked: Beyond The Mugshot
A JWA creation made possible through the serious support of Rehabilitation Enables Dreams.
For many people who’ve been locked up, their mugshot is the only professional photo they’ve ever had.
This changes the way people see them. More importantly, it influences the way they see themselves.
Thurman, 40+ years in the system.
I began taking photos of people with criminal records in 2021, gradually replacing 1000 mugshots with portraits.
My hope is that they see themselves in a new light, or to see a version of themselves that they knew to be true all along.
David Windecher (the Executive Director of Rehabilitation Enables Dreams) and I had been talking about teaming up for a creative project for a minute when we finally settled on an idea: an audio addition to Booked.
His team and I worked together to build a recording studio in the basement of a law firm in Buckhead, Georgia.
Then we started recording.
In this special audio version of Booked, I sit with six people associated with Rehabilitation Enables Dreams (RED). They went through RED’s diversion program, work for RED, or are on the board.
None of these stories are the same, but they all have something in common.
They’ve all been booked.
I hope you find these interviews to be uplifting and touching. And I hope it helps you look beyond the mugshot — especially if you’ve got one of your own.
Financial and logistical support for
Booked: Beyond The Mugshot [The Podcast]
came from Rehabilitation Enables Dreams, a seriously effective restorative justice non-profit organization based in Georgia worth supporting.
Shoutout to Jessica Manning, a RED staff member who made my work feel like the opposite of work. She organized the interviewees, access to the studio, and even led the charge in building that studio. If every criminal justice reform org had a Jessica Manning, then there’d probably be nothing more to reform.
All love to the 6 interviewees who sat with me and opened up to a stranger. For some of them, it was the first time telling this much of their story. My hope is that this generosity circles back to all of y’all soon. (And thanks for taking me to lunch that one day, Zeus and Hunter.)
Gratitude goes to Manny and the other attorneys for being kind to a weirdo like me rummaging around in their basement, peace to the contractor who helped build out the studio, y mil gracias a los limpiadores por mantener el estudio.
And all respect to David Windecher for believing in the project and inspiring me with his tenacity.
G. Thomas Craig at Vox Bridge Studios edited and sound designed this project, generating ideas, making suggestions, and handling this/me at an expert level. And I directed, produced, hosted, and created the art.