Voices of Jericho
Website: http://voicesofjericho.virb.com/
True Story Pictures began the Voices of Jericho project in 2004, to document the stories of people with serious mental illness who were caught in the criminal justice system in Memphis, TN. These individuals were clients of The Jericho Project, a jail diversion program managed by the Shelby County Public Defender's Office. With help from their public defenders, they were able to navigate their way out of the system and connect to community treatment and support.
Following the success of Voices of Jericho: Stories of Jail Diversion (2005), director Joann Self Selvidge began documenting other voices connected to this struggle. With fiscal sponsorship from the Southern Documentary Fund, she followed a young man named Rico Ross as he was released from jail back into the community. This project, Voices of Jericho: Road to Recovery (2010) is now nationally distributed by the Shelby County Public Defender's Office, and can be viewed online at http://voicesofjericho.virb.com/
With support from the Southern Documentary Fund, Selvidge produced a short film and created this website to present Rico's story along with other important voices that speak from positions of expertise and experience along the spectrum of mental health and criminal justice issues.