Richmond Justice

Richmond Justice is a year-long project produced by Field Studio considering the justice landscape in Virginia's capital city.

Each week in 2016, this site revealed a new portrait and story about a Richmonder whose life is shaped in some way by the justice system.

On Friday, February 3, 2017, Richmond Justice launched an exhibit at UR Downtown that remained on-display through March 24. Richmond Justice then became the inaugural exhibit in the Justice Gallery at the John Marshall House, featured from June 2017 through May 2018.

Richmond Justice grew from years of making media about incarceration that helped us to appreciate at least two essential facts: The number of people touched by the justice system is far greater than folks tend to imagine, and stories about institutions and individuals shaping one another through crime and punishment are too profound to go untold.  When we think about people affected by the justice system, we are—more often than one might expect—thinking about our neighbors.  To care for them requires first that we understand them, through their own words.

In a gallery talk at UR Downtown on March 16, Richmond Justice co-director Lance Warren offered these reflections on a year of discovering the city through the justice system (click here for a transcript):

We hope that you find Richmond Justice resonant and eye-opening, and we welcome your feedback.

— Hannah Ayers and Lance Warren, Co-Directors
    Richmond Justice and Field Studio