Calhoun County Jail in Morgan, Georgia was built in the late 1800s and is the oldest functioning prison in Georgia. In Rogers State Prison in Reedsville, Georgia, prisoners perform unpaid work including canning food, making office furniture, and road signs that are sold to government agencies. A woman and her six month old child in Luzira Women’s Prison in Kampala, Uganda, at the time this photo was taken in 2013, housed around 370 women and 30 children. In Uganda, a prisoner wearing white designates that they have received a death penalty. This image is particularly striking to me, seeing someone working to enrich others lives while they themselves have a death sentence. It is worth noting that while the death penalty is still sentenced in Uganda, it has not been carried out since 2,005. You’re looking inside prisons from around the world. Dutch photographer Jan Banning gained access to prisons in Uganda, Colombia, France and the United States, specifically the state of Georgia, between 2010 and 2013. He works to present his photos objectively, providing an aesthetically pleasing yet analytical view of prison life. His resulting book, published in 2016, is full of statistics accompanying these images. The countries were chosen to be representative of four different continents, with a mix of different legal systems and covering both developed and developing nations. Here, over half of the 100 inmates in this medium security prison in Colombia are government officials, including elected officials, judges, police officers, governors, mayors, etcetera. Now, while these Photos are presented in a straightforward manner with accompanying facts. I can’t help but feel for the people pictured. Do their punishments fit their crimes? Are they receiving rehabilitation? Do they have a reasonable chance to earn their freedom? It’s a fantastic look into worlds many of us could not imagine. I like how it both presents facts while humanizing the people behind the walls. This is a great example of how photography can serve the world and build connections between people who would likely never cross paths in life.