Courthouse Confessions

by Matt Kelley · 2009-01-25 13:14:00 UTC
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Johnathan Serrano (left) was convicted of stealing a tank top from a store and sentenced to community service. He says he absentmindedly walked out with the tank top in his hand and would never steal it. He then got into a physical altercation with the store security guard and was arrested. All a misunderstanding, he says, but one that led him to a misdemeanor conviction and some community service hours.

Serrano's seemingly routine arrest and conviction is the story of the criminal justice system - a tangle of lives caught in the machine of justice, each playing out slightly differently depending on the day, the state, the judge, the courtroom, the crime. Photographer Steven Hirsch posts first-person true stories like Serrano's on his photo essay blog Courthouse Confessions, which chronicles the lives of men and women in New York on their day in court.

Hirsch's blog is a must-read and an excellent use of the web to remind us all about the often anonymous stories and struggles that make up in the system.

Matt Kelley is the Online Communications Manager at the Innocence Project and a graduate of the Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern University. Follow him on Twitter @mattjkelley.
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