NCCF
Correctional Facility, Iowa 2001.
Giclee print
PAUL TAGGART,
selected by
Christopher James, studies photography at the Art Institute of Boston and has
taken workshops with Antonin Kratochvil and Mary Ellen Mark. He has photographed
for PBS documentaries and the Farm Institute on Martha’s Vineyard. He lives in
Cambridge, MA.
Corrections
/ United States/ These
photographs, taken at the Iowa Department of Corrections – North Central
Correctional Facility located in Rockwell City, Iowa and Iowa State
Penitentiary, are an attempt to examine the correctional system in the United
States, from juvenile facilities to adult and prerelease programs. I am
interested in raising questions more than answering them. With a higher percent
of our population incarcerated than in any other country in the world, the
public needs to be made aware in order to reexamine how we handle corrections.
Something is obviously not working. Everyday prison populations are rising while
crime rates are not falling relatively, is incarceration a productive avenue?
Along with photographing within the walls of correctional institutions, I am
interested in photographing victim’s families to see the full impact of crime
on our culture. The judicial, correctional, rehabilitation, prerelease, and
families of both criminals and victims are paramount to telling this story.
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