Tim Gruber and Jenn Ackerman use both photography and video to tell stories for editorial and commercial clients. 
Here is my latest project – Trapped: Mental Illness in America’s Prisons.
What started out as an assignment for school has produced a piece that has changed my life and hopefully will do the same for the people that view it. That was my hope when producing it at least. Ten weeks ago, we (my grad class at OU) were given the assignment to create a magazine including the brand, the mission statement and of course the content.
For this project, I decided to focus on the mental health crisis, specifically in prisons. This brought me to the CPTU inside the Kentucky State Reformatory.
My intention was to make a multimedia piece that made the viewer feel what I felt when I was there. There were days that I was extremely scared and others that I left thinking how much someone on the outside missed them. Some days, I had to remind myself that many of these men had done heinous things.
I saw them cry. I saw them hit themselves so hard in the head that they bled. I saw them throw things at the officers.
I left the prison feeling the same way the warden and the doctors do – wanting to help these men that have nowhere else to go but feeling helpless. All I could do was make a piece that brings others in and hopefully makes them feel for these men, the doctors, the warden and the issue at large. There needs to be a shift in the way our society sees mental illness. We don’t need to just house these people and maybe prison isn’t the place for them.
I hope you all feel something from this piece. Please let me know what you think. Visit my project at www.ackermangruber.com/trapped
Jenn, what a powerful piece of journalism! Thanks for shedding light on an important issue. All the best, Scott
phenomenal work jenn.
what a wonderful piece of work now everyone can see what we have too deal with everyday we go to work.job well done thanks
fantastic work jenn! moving, nauseating, frightening and thought provoking!
Impressive and intensive – great! Your work asked me, why the government wasted billions of bucks in Iraq though money is needed in America. I don´t know where the mental ill people are…
Really phenom piece….powerful imaging and multimedia. Bravo!
wow… i don’t even have the words to describe how much your work affected me today. i saw everything on the ‘indepth’ site; the ‘trapped’ video, the inmate interviews, the ‘inmate watchers’ video – all of it, and here i sit in a puddle of my own tears. this work is profoundly moving and this insight into prisons as mental health institutions needs to be wide-spread, seen and heard. i hope it will make a difference.
i have a question – how on earth did you gain such access as to be allowed into the prison system to do this work? that is phenomenal in itself. i always wanted to do a PJ piece on the prison system but access is utterly denied here in seattle.
please continue your work of which i have high admiration for.
thank you,
katia roberts
jenn … really amazing. i’d be interested in what your response to katia roberts is about access. also to hear about how you went about this whole project. it’s very touching, disturbing, sad and amazing all at once.
thanks for putting your heart into it.
Justin
Jenn, I have to tell you how impressive your work is. You have presented a balanced look at an extremely intense place. Its tough on everyone there and I think you got to experience that. You are a credit to your chosen field and your work speaks volumes for those living and working with mental illness in prisons. I look forward to seeing more of your work from your visits on the yard at KSR.
Jenn we were glad to have you and now that I see the final project it looks great. Now hopefully people will see the problems that we as corrections professionals deal with everyday. Good luck and hope to see more of your work.