Vinny, 13, cries during a visit with his mother, Eve, at the Bernalillo County juvenile detention centre. ‘Mom, just get me out. Just get me out, Mom,’ Vinny says. ‘When my mom was being beaten up, I was so scared. I wanted to defend my mom. I’m tired of seeing my mom get hurt. The Vinny and David photo essay begins with Vinny, then 13, when he was incarcerated for stabbing his mother’s assailant, and shadows him and his older brother, David. It focuses on their lives and their family, community and respective incarcerations over five years in Albuquerque, New Mexico

Photograph: Isadora Kosofsky