Mug Shots

Back when I was a juvenile probation officer, I used to have to take detainees' mug shots. This was one of the last steps of the intake process. During training, we'd read a number of horror stories about intake, and it was thus always a pretty nerve-wracking task. I tended to be overly cautious while also trying to establish a decent relationship with the kid I was processing.

If things were going well at the end of this process, when it came time to take the kid's mug shot, I'd sometimes say something like, "You can smile if you want to. Come on, say 'cheese'." I think only one kid--who was going to be released in about fifteen minutes--ever smiled.

Now, though, The Smoking Gun has a gallery of smiling criminals. After looking at it, I'm kind of glad most of those kids decided not to smile. They knew what they were doing.