What is it like to be a prisoner in Uganda? How does that compare to being incarcerated in the United States? What about France? Colombia?

How humans handle crime, and how we dole out punishment, is the question that gnaws at Jan Banning. Before he was a photographer, he was a student of history—less interested in spectacle and more interested in the slow, structural development of systems. Before delving into the world of criminal justice, he spent years photographing bureaucrats around the world, comparing civil servants on five different continents. After he was finished examining the executive branch, he decided to take on the judiciary, which imposes criminal sentences.

Legal paperwork and court hearings usually look pretty boring, and getting a camera