![]() ![]() Vinny, straddling adolescence and adulthood, is awaiting his first child with his girlfriend of two years. Vinny, now almost age 17, has reunited with his brother and now lives with him. My long-term documentation of Vinny and his older brother David is approaching its 4th year. At 13, when asked about his life goals, Vinny expressed a desire to work in astronomy or to own a business someday. After speaking to him, I was taken aback by his wisdom and sensitivity. When I first saw Vinny in the booking section of a juvenile detention center in Albuquerque, I felt an immediate connection. Detainment isn’t localized just to a facility, for it leaves profound psychological effects, as it did on Vinny’s and his older brother David’s development. Incarceration is both a solitary and collective experience. Powerless to intervene, relatives and lovers wait hours for phone calls,aching for legal decisions and release, sometimes with an unknown date. When one member is incarcerated, the whole family is too. Vinny and his family became conditioned to a paradox of love and loss. Shortly after Vinny’s release, the court ordered that he live with his paternal aunt, three hours from his family in Albuquerque. Vinny describes David as a father figure, and David views Vinny as the only person who appreciates him. Vinny and David try to embrace their youth, confiding in each other and spending time together. Their relationship is a unique comfort to each of them. After his father went to prison, David was in foster care eventually, David’s mother, Eve, got custody, and David joined Vinny and two younger siblings,Michael and Elycia.Īfter growing up with pain and abandonment, Vinny and David yearn for love and a restored family. I’m tired of seeing my mom get hurt.” While in juvenile detention, Vinny’s brother, David, age 19, is incarcerated in an adult facility for another offense. Vinny confides, “When my mom was being beat up, I was so scared. I love my older brother more than anybody in the world.” Vinny, just 13, shares his thoughts sitting in a juvenile detention center in Albuquerque, New Mexico, where he is held after stabbing a man who assaulted his mother. ![]()
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