- [Announcer] Funding for this program was provided in part by the National Endowment for the Arts.

(siren wailing) (uptempo rhythmic music) (uptempo rhythmic music continues) (uptempo rhythmic music continues) (uptempo rhythmic music continues) - Cranes are new beginnings for me, so that's why I like taking pictures of cranes.

Every time you look through that lens, that's always your shot, and whatever that shot is, it could be a new beginning of anything.

- I tied the sneakers and put them outside of the fire escape.

People come to the conclusion where you don't know what it is to walk in other people's shoes sometimes, and sometimes you don't know what they go through.

- [Reporter] This isn't just a graduate, it's a mother's sacrifice.

This isn't just a homeless person, it's a connection to family.

- [Carl] She's homeless but she's not hopeless or helpless.

- [Council Member] How could you leave this room and not be inspired?

(uptempo rhythmic music) (bell chiming) (hooves thumping) (bell chiming) - [Narrator] In 1841, a Boston bootmaker happened to be in police court one day and witnessed drunkard after drunkard sentenced to a jail term.

In a light-bulb moment, John Augustus spotted a promising defendant and made the judge an offer he didn't refuse.

"Give this one to me and I'll return him to court in a few weeks a reformed man."

Augustus was as good as his word, and the father of probation was off to the races-- having set every element of the practice in place.

(intriguing music) In 2020, almost as many Americans are on probation as live in Los Angeles.

- Although the dominant share of our criminal justice system, it's a world few other Americans can imagine.

- [Narrator] Instead of winding up in jail or prison, offenders are supervised in their community without advance warning and must regularly check in with the probation agency.

By now, the probation function handles intake of juveniles into the justice system generally, while often conducting pre-sentence investigations of all manner of defendants-- even those for whom an offer of probation would never be entertained.

For decades, the reports tended to read like pulp fiction.

Few Americans know of probation's outsize role in sentences handed out to many defendants.

Still, many offenses beyond drunkenness can now earn a term of probation if the offender is deemed capable of rehabilitation in the community.

- [First Probation Video - [Narrator] Charged with the responsibility of supervising almost 170,000 offenders, state probation officers work every day to ensure the safety of our communities.

Probation officers help offenders who stand at a crossroads in their lives.

(upbeat country music) - [Second Probation Video Narrator] It asks them to replace some past risky thoughts that they might have.

- [Probation Officer] How about step two?

- [Second Probation Video Narrator] And replace those with a more positive or pro-social way of thinking.

- [Probation Officer] Probation is giving the offenders a second chance to do their time in the community, but we are the ones out there making sure that they're doing it correctly and trying to keep the public safe.

- [First Probation Video Narrator] Sometimes, even with the best of intentions, offenders find themselves back in trouble.

Sometimes it's necessary for probation officers to work in collaboration with other state and local law enforcement agencies-- assisting in warrant arrests and the monitoring of individuals suspected of re-offending.

- [Probation Officer] We're in the business of second and third and fourth chances.

(train rattling) - [Leo] Before probation, I wasn't really utilizing my time properly.

I was kind of involved in negative things here and there.

- [Eric] When I was younger, I was a mess.

Wilding out with my friends, beating people up for no reason, running away from cops, stole whatever we wanted.

- [William] My story starts when I was young.

I made a lot of mistakes.

I was incarcerated 13 years, but out of those 13 years I did 11 years in solitary confinement.

- [Andre] I started off in a positive way.

It was the choices that I made.

- [Eric] I'm born in the heart of the heart: Bed-Stuy, I call it the jungle.

Nowhere else in the city that is more dangerous.

- [Narrator] Many in certain areas of the city have lived in fear for their lives.

- [Tavel] There was a lot of negative in the part where I grew up, like Brooklyn.

You hear about the danger.

You have to watch your back.

I had to become a different person.

I had to become more alert and more cautious about people.

And I had to watch every move I made-- and watch every move everybody else was making.

- We in the community and we don't see doctors, we don't see lawyers.

Usually we see gangbangers or we see people that's trying to rob people.

We don't really be around a good positive outlet or a good role model.

- [Narrator] Participants and probation officials shared such observations with the New York City Council when, at an unusual public hearing, they sought support of a novel training program.

- [Michael] I'm from East New York, Brooklyn and we have been affected a lot by gun violence and then the whole cycle of it of parents going to jail and then never coming back.

- [Ana Bermúdez] I can't tell you how many young people on probation who don't think they're gonna be alive next week.

- [Narrator] Yet, support by neighbors is critical to rehabilitation.

- [Vernel] Community to me means togetherness.

We stand together.

- [Eric] People who help people gets helped.

- [Devonte] If you don't have a community, you don't have no foundation, that's how I feel.

- [Narrator] What happens when probation fails?

A new conviction can send you to prison for the rest of your original sentence following a jail term.

And that's not even counting the looming additional incarceration.

The jail in New York City is the nation's most notorious.

Meanwhile, an actual re-offense puts the community at risk.

Searches of homes have turned up contraband.

An offender going off the rails could be the worst time in a probation officer's life.

- [Probation Officer] He was on my caseload.

It was Christmastime.

He shot up his girlfriend while she was out on the street.

She was trying to make a phone call from a public phone.

She died, along with her unborn baby.

Could I have done something differently?

It was a very, very hard time.

- [Narrator] Yet, most New Yorkers on probation succeed keeping the city safe and a model for remedying mass incarceration.

- [Ana Bermúdez] We had to embed probation and the resources we bring in the seven New York City neighborhoods that most people on probation call home.

Somebody who needs to go to probation after work and they work near their home or in their communities can just walk over to the probation office.

- [Narrator] Along with conveniently basing the function in the community and the neighborly support this allows, as well as renovating waiting rooms into welcoming spaces-- an expression of what's known as procedural justice-- New York City's not-so-secret sauce as the industry leader includes permitting low-risk offenders to check in via kiosk, enabling additional personal supervision of riskier cases; having those who complete probation mentor current offenders to improve success rates while providing employment; incorporating restorative justice into its community work programs; sentencing to shorter terms and releasing early if rehabilitated; and conducting a wide-ranging arts effort in partnership with the local community.

(upbeat music) New York practice also includes interviews grounded in cognitive behavioral therapy.

- [Probation Officer] These are risk factors.

They could either be a strength or a weakness.

- [Narrator] One of the most important ingredients of the city's rehabilitative practice is dialing down punishment for violations of probation.

Rehabilitation had been baked into probation from the start.

The deal was set: individuals redeemed, with lower recidivism in the future purchased at lower cost than incarceration outweighing any new offenses committed during the terms.

For a century after its statewide institutionalization in Massachusetts in 1878, the arrangement held.

Until it didn't.

(siren wailing) The crime wave traumatized Americans echoing the trauma that underlaid so much criminal behavior in the first place.

Probation lost its rehabilitative roots, turning punitive as its officers sank under burgeoning caseloads.

You could be violated for a sideways glance.

And even now, outside New York City, probation may ensnare too many while serving as a staging area for eventual imprisonment.

(somber music) Thousands lay in jail or prison for violating technical rules.

Even successfully completing probation leaves one with a criminal record.

- [Van Jones] We do know why he ran in the first place.

He's trapped in the probation system that's so punitive, so unforgiving.

It's a spider's web of Catch-22s.

It's almost impossible to stay out of prison once you're on probation.

He was running 'cause he didn't wanna lose his liberty.

(gentle music) - [Narrator] A mocking media image has inhibited needed reforms.

(camera shutter clicks) (gentle music) To counter negative stereotypes of Americans on probation while obtaining a marketable skill, New York City probation clients and their neighborhood allies enrolled in a program showing them how to document their own lives in photographs-- like the city's housing project residents five years earlier.

- [Roma Torre] You know, when you hear the words public housing, you might tend to think about dingy, old city buildings that are rife with crime or anything from leaky roofs and--and leaky pipes.

But three New Yorkers are aiming to change that perception.

- [Chelsea Davis] I think this is a great example of the sense of community.

So many of our participants talked about the importance of the community in the development.

- [Roma Torre] In the book, you mentioned a theory.

It basically says one's sense of self is formed by the way society regards that person.

- [Chelsea Davis] There is definitely an awareness of the negative public perception.

- [Jonathan Fisher] We felt that the residents deserved better.

- [Chelsea] The initial concept was George's idea and he pitched the idea to the housing authority.

- [George Carrano] It was way back in 2002.

I was in London and stumbled onto a participatory photography exhibit in a church basement.

The roots of the practice may lay partly in the insights of Frederick Douglass and W.E.B.

Dubois.

Anyway, the photographs were simple but powerful like a Fellini film.

(The note writer speaking in Italian) - [George Carrano] All that despair.

(playful music) But with a ray of optimism at the end.

I was determined to bring this grassroots approach to visual storytelling back home.

A world-famous photojournalist saw the show.

It was he who encouraged me to set up the nonprofit Seeing for Ourselves.

And then I looked for a marginalized New York City population eager to take back their own narrative.

- [Radio Host] Chelsea, you had previously done this style of participatory photography with pediatric cancer patients at St. Louis Children's Hospital.

- [Chelsea Davis] I had a beautiful moment working in that program with a deaf child who photographed people's hands because he signed with sign language.

And I think that moment to me really emphasized the beauty of participatory photography and what you can achieve when documenting life that is unmediated by an outside observer.

- [Narrator] With Project Lives creating a new image of public housing--thanks to global acclaim, multiple awards, and prominent fans-- New York City and State ramped up their support of the projects.

The training of participants along with the platform afforded by a widely noticed book seemed to validate participatory photography anew in the Instagram era.

- [Ana Bermúdez] Our latest expanded arts experience is NeON Photography, which provides professional photography training in the history of photography, technical skills, and the art of visual storytelling.

- [Leo] I'm really fond of nature photography.

I like to surround myself with the woods.

Photography has given me a new outlet to do that.

- [Narrator] Classes were open to the entire community.

- [Patrice] Chelsea, you created such a safe and comfortable space for us to work in and we all came from different backgrounds and experiences, so it was great to learn and connect with each other on a different level.

- [Ebony] I thought that, you know, being young, Black, from the projects, you can't go outside with your camera because, you know, the people in the area, they think differently of it.

You know they're easily offended.

- [Devonte] I come from such a crazy background, so I like to put that into my pictures, but make it look in a beautiful way.

I took a picture of a Lamborghini.

Where I come from there's no Lamborghinis in my neighborhood.

So, I decided to take a picture of that.

I can't afford something like that, but I still love the beauty of the car.

- [Alisha] My visual inspiration came from my daughters.

My older daughter, she doesn't speak, but they are able to communicate through the language of love.

- [Andre] I found out that morning Chico had got killed in the park.

He was shot one time the back of the head.

I knew if I was there that night, you know, it could have been me laying on the floor.

- [Leo] Now in these days, we're so caught up with paying bills and make something of yourself in this life and it's like, it seems like the more you go on, there's more competition or more dilemmas, more obstacles.

So I like to focus on the things that, when you stand still for a second, actually make all that go away and just make you appreciate the moment that's at hand.

- [Narrator] Completing paid photo shoots built self-confidence.

- [Kenneth] You know, one minute you're in a classroom in Harlem and then Chelsea's shoving a camera in your hand and you're photographing the lead piano for the New York Philharmonic at a private venue.

- [Anchor Person] Free photography classes.

- [Narrator] Milestones of the project included gallery shows in 2018 and 2019 of the participants' best work.

- [Vinnie] I didn't think I would see my picture on the wall.

- [Reporter] The wall of a local publishing house with the city's Department of Probation offering free photography classes.

He's got the chops.

The program's director says, "Studies show community engagement actually prevents crime."

(gentle piano music) (gentle piano music continues) - [Ebony] We started this a minute ago and we're here now with names on the wall and real, real, real work-- - [Chelsea Davis] --in a real gallery!

- In a real gallery!

- [Ana Bermúdez] It's all the same kind of idea of really bringing people together, different entities together to create something.

We don't know what the project's gonna look like at the end, but at the end there will be a book, much like Project Lives, and it's become much more than that, too.

It's been a vehicle for work, advancement, opportunities, a future.

It's fantastic.

- [Vanessa Gibson] Representing a district in the South and the West Bronx, I know all too well how important arts is.

I often say our young people need a first chance because they've never been given a first chance.

We say second chance?

They need a first chance.

- [Carlina Rivera] I just wanna say how important I think criminal justice reform and alternative to incarceration and probation and how important this is.

You clearly have successes and you have built this comprehensive arts program that I think is absolutely incredible.

- [Natalie Marc] What's really special about this program is that it's really founded and based in collaboration.

I cannot even begin to explain how proud I am to be a part of this group with all of these photographers.

You all are amazing and, most importantly, you all have been the greatest support system-- we've all been supporting each other.

And I think that collaboration itself is an art and we truly have made magic together tonight.

(participants clapping) - [Vanessa Gibson] You're giving them marketable skills, a viable outlet for all of their energies.

- [Kirk] Coming from where I come from, you need some sort of a creative outlet, somewhere to put these energies into.

- [Vanessa Gibson] I think the most important thing is that it helps to build self-esteem.

- [William] You guys have any weddings or any birthday parties for a professional photographer?

Just holler at me and I'll give you one of my cards, you know?

My secretary right here will set you up an appointment.

All right.

(participants laughing and clapping) - [Council Member] This is a ridiculously happy group of people.

(attendees laughing) - This is so not where the world is right now.

How could you leave this room and not feel good about this program?

And I don't know if you hired all these people who are actors behind you, but they're doing a great job.

- [Probation Officer] In your case, it's not too difficult.

You report weekly to me.

You stay out of the company you previously mixed with and, as soon as possible, you start the gainful employment, which you guaranteed is part of your application.

- [Client] Oh yeah, the job.

Now there might be a bit of a problem there.

- [Probation Officer] Problem?

- [Client] Yeah, well, you see Isabelle, my old lady, she fixed me up with that job, you see.

- [Probation Offficer] The cardboard box factory?

- That's right, on the North Circle.

Yeah.

Well, she was very friendly with this owner, you see, Jessop, Reg Jessop, you see, and he was the man who offered me the gainful employment.

- [Probation Officer] Yes, I know, I have his letter on file.

- [Client] Yeah, well since then, you see, in the intervening time since that letter, the friendship between him and my missus has sort of, well, it's blossomed, you know?

- [Probation Officer] Blossomed?

- [Client] Yeah, yeah.

Or, to put it another way, they now live together.

(audience laughing) - [Probation Officer] But this is terrible.

I had to submit your home circumstances report to endorse your application, in which I stated that those home circumstances were stable.

- [Client] Oh yes, they are stable, but the horse has bolted.

(audience laughing) Or, in this case, the old mare.

(camera shutter clicks) (melancholic music) - [Ana Bermúdez] It's such a basic human need to express yourself.

I think once our officers were also very involved in it, they can talk about it in a way that resonates with a person.

This is about your ability to express yourself, to get out from under some of the thinking that got you in trouble.

- [Rodney Levy] Andre and I have interacted with each other on a number of occasions.

- [Andre] Absolutely - [Rodney Levy] And whenever I see him, I talk to him about how well he's done and how well he can do.

- [Michael] If you could organically start building up these type of relationships with probation officers-- not on a disciplinary level, but on a creative level and just having these things--it really works.

- I'm a probation officer.

[Sharon] They allowed me to be in the group, so I came and I enjoyed it.

I love my class.

I've learnt so much from so many of them-- their viewpoints on different things.

- [Probation Official] Look, these things happen because we are awash here in criminals and in half-baked social workers in a city that doesn't function in a world that doesn't know right from wrong.

There's only one man who would've made a good probation officer: Kafka.

And he wasn't available.

(chuckles) (camera shutter clicks) (gentle music) - [Ebony] It's crazy how photography could take you into so many different things.

As of right now, I'm an ophthalmologist.

I take pictures of the back of people's eyeballs.

So there is no limit to where this could take you.

- [Andre] And I knew from that point on that this is what I wanted to do.

It was like a rush, you know?

(gentle music) - [Narrator] Beyond a rebranding of probation and skill development, there were unexpected outcomes.

- [Devonte] When I don't have class, I still take pictures.

It makes me feel free.

I have an opportunity to express myself.

- [Taquan] I actually took the class last year and now I'm teaching it.

It's working, and they have something to look forward to.

They have something to express themself without being in the streets.

They could shoot a camera and not a gun.

- [Tavel] In my photography work, I could inspire people to go down a more positive path.

- [Emily] Everyone has a different perspective on things and I think that's what photography is about: a different perspective.

- [Tavel] I look at things different.

Everybody has a different point of view.

- [Narrator] Growing up in certain family situations in certain areas of the city, recognizing others' viewpoints had been a luxury for some.

They had to put their own needs first.

It was all they could do to survive.

- [Emily] This experience was life-changing for me and it changed the way I view things.

- [Moshelle] What I thought was a death sentence for my career in so many ways ended up saving my life.

- [Narrator] Another element of New York City practice has been devolving responsibility for one's rehabilitation to oneself.

Participatory probation, in a way.

This may help account for how strongly many probation clients and their neighborhood allies responded to the participatory photography program-- built, as it is, on recognizing we all have a different perspective.

- [Taquan] It's having me looking at life in a different perspective.

As I'm walking down the street, I just don't walk down the street, I see things in a whole new lens, as I will say.

- [Leo] It's definitely helped me socialize more.

I'm doing a lot better now.

I'm a lot more proud of what I'm doing with my time.

- [Andre] It definitely changed my life in a great way.

To gave me a new passion.

I definitely look forward to spreading that same opportunity and experience with others.

- [Leo] I've been able to see that you don't have to always stay in the hood and do the same thing.

- [Probation Officer] What were you doing that was more important than seeing your PO?

- [Client] I was working.

- [Probation Officer] I did not know you had a job.

What is it you do?

- [Client] I sell dope.

- [Probation Officer] You can't sell dope!

That is one of the things you are on probation for.

- [Client] You are not going to violate me, are you?

- [Probation Officer] If by "violate," you mean that I will document your non-compliance with the terms and conditions of your probation--then, yes.

- [Client] My public pretender did not tell me that.

- [Probation Officer] If by "violate," you mean the same thing that you did to that 15-year-old--then, no.

(bell chimes) - [Narrator] Within a few years of his lightbulb moment, probation's founder had moved on from redeeming drunkards to rehabilitating prostitutes.

John Augustus seemed to have a special interest in the youngest and prettiest-- which raised eyebrows even at the time.

Putting up many in his home until they had seen the error of their ways-- that set tongues wagging as well.

He records having schlepped 4,000 women between the courtroom and his own house, but remains silent about what had transpired during these journeys.

- [Jonathan Fisher] Would I trust someone like John Augustus to supervise my teenage daughter?

To ask the question is to answer it.

Most of the world remains in his debt for his innovation.

Yet, if known, this possible misbehavior is yet another aspect of probation's reputation-- along with news coverage, sitcoms, films, and online videos-- it pays to try to counter, if the sanction is to be deemed an effective alternative to jail or prison.

(camera shutter clicks) (gentle music) - [Crowd] Black Lives Matter.

- I feel great.

[Vinnie] I ain't gonna lie, I feel like The Man.

- [Reporter] What's the message in this photo?

- [Garrie] You can find beauty and perfection in the smallest things that you never recognized-- especially in New York City.

- [Anchor Person] Well, you're now the associate director of the NeON Photography program.

- [Andre] Absolutely.

Sponsored by Seeing for Ourselves.

- [Reporter] From the use of light and shadow, to depth of field, they learned how to tell a story with a camera lens through their eyes.

- [Anothere Reporter] But for some it has been an opportunity at a second chance.

- [Anchor Person] This program really is changing lives and hopefully helping to change the criminal justice system.

- [Council Member] Every once in a while, something stops you, right?

It's almost like the power of art itself.

It's why a theater performance is so great.

It's why a visit to a museum and looking at art is important 'cause it stops you for a second from the chaos of the world and it makes you think about why we're here and what we're supposed to be doing with this time on this earth.

Both of us as elected officials, but as people.

This hearing is that moment, right?

Is one of those moments where you're like, wherever I was coming from, rushing from that luncheon, wherever I'm going now, rushing to those evening events, this moment, these three hours were really, really important and mostly important because of all of the participants in the program who spoke and shared how it transformed your life and Kalefe's life.

- [Eric] It made me into better man and to the man that I wanted to be.

- [Leo] You know, it's like a second chance.

- [Reporter] Seeing the world and themselves in a whole new way.

- [Chelsea Davis] Look out for these photographers' book publication that's upcoming in months ahead.

- [Council Member] I hope whether this hearing makes the cut or not in the books, that you share them with all of the members of the city council.

(uptempo music) (uptempo music continues) (uptempo music continues) (uptempo music continues) (uptempo music continues) (uptempo music continues) (uptempo music continues) (uptempo music continues) (uptempo music continues) ♪ I see the way you move ♪ ♪ It's so fluid ♪ ♪ With you by my side ♪ ♪ Got a place to hide ♪ ♪ Now that you're hurting I see ♪ ♪ The tears behind those eyes ♪ ♪ And I can't wipe them clear ♪ ♪ Your love was like gold to me ♪ ♪ But you hold me closer to the light ♪ ♪ Wouldn't find a bullet inside ♪ ♪ Unless you magnified ♪ ♪ But you throw me into the deep end ♪ ♪ Expect me to know how to swim ♪ ♪ And I put my faith inside my hands ♪ ♪ 'Cause I will be just fine ♪ - [Jonathan Fisher] Those serving probation elsewhere, often very different from the New York City participants, will hopefully also be helped by the photography while it promotes decarceration.

Even in jurisdictions like Florida, California, and Arizona, they have already embraced reform.

- [Nicodemus] This whole experience has just been, like, a storyline.

We are all authors of our book.

You know, we're all the main characters of our book.

This is just capturing that image of the book, and putting it into pictures.

♪ Sitting tight with my black jeans on ♪ ♪ And I'm paralyzed ♪ ♪ Make your way toward the sun ♪ ♪ Got the palest soul you ever seen ♪ ♪ Oh, darling, you mightn't be the one ♪ ♪ Sitting tight with my curly hair ♪ ♪ When you're making your way with that step and stare ♪ ♪ So tell me, do you feel anything?

♪ ♪ Ashes to ashes ♪ ♪ In the embers of our day♪ ♪ Oh, I gotta rise among you though ♪ ♪ Then I think about your face every day ♪ ♪ But you pull me closer to the light ♪ - [Announcer] Funding for this program was provided in part by the National Endowment for the Arts.

To order the companion book visit inawholenewway.com.

(no audio)