Every year thousands of young people are incarcerated in the United States' juvenile justice system. Most listeners will never have the opportunity to interact with a young person in who has served time. Fortunately for all of us, Sound Portraits producer, Stacey Abramson, has helped five young adults recently released from New York's Rikers Island to tell us their own stories.

These pieces are self-reflective, focusing on how the story tellers got into trouble and how they now make sense of their lives. Violent and deeply troubling, these stories are evidence of the radio's empathetic power to briefly merge the disparate lives of listener and storyteller. The stories have strong ties to New York but would fit well with any programming about juvenile justice.

Actor Rosie Perez provides brief context at the beginning and ending of each piece. Features are available as individual downloads. Strong language and graphic violence makes this series most appropriate for after hours broadcast.

Music writer Chris Godsey introduces listeners Crew Jones, a rap group that rhymes about life in rural Minnesota. This is music journalism with some teeth; it's rare to hear this serious of a critque of underground hip-hop on public radio. The production style is conservative - listeners maintain a clinical distance from the live Crew Jones show, but this sound suits the tone of the piece which treats the Crew Jones music with an uncommon journalistic respect.

Danielle Simpson's young voice is incisive, rich in tone, and unique on the airwaves of public radio. Simpson's passionate discourse will grab your ears by force. Mourning the cruelty of life, economic injustice, and violence in our communities, Simpson has polished the angry words of this poem into a stark vein of despair. Her voice brings the truth of raw emotion to the airwaves. Her powerful oratory elevates this piece to a must listen.

Fans of World Cafe, Morning Becomes Eclectic, and American Roots will feel right at home with this eclectic hour of music straight from WUGA in Athens, Georgia. The mix jumps from the raw sounds of The Black Keys into an early Jamaican record, and features such disparate sounds as John Cale, Tom Waits, The Bees, and songs from the Mento Madness. Producer JoE Silva interjects polished commentary about the music, the artists, and upcoming Athens area performances. His phone interview with BBC DJ Gilles Peterson has an insiders' vibe that may resonate with knowledgable listeners, but those not familiar with Peterson could use either more context or a more aggressively edited interview. Silva could sound a little more engaged in what he's doing, but his sound is natural and therefore refreshing. A live e-mail competition and repeated announcements of upcoming Athens area events make this a tough piece to drop into programming.

This commentary is a sweet and funny take on Christmas traditions that would be a good add for any holiday programming. The piece begins and ends with the light jazzy tones of Santa Claus is Coming to Town. In between the musical bookends, Sean O'Connor delivers a polished commentary on the wardrobes of Santas everywhere. O'Connor's voicing is more professional sounding than the material merits. The writing is tongue in cheek but the delivery is not.

NPR's popular series, "What Are You Listening To?" can't hold a candle to the real world sensibility and depth of this piece about San Francisco high-schooler Max Hsing's favorite song. The classic Queen vs Bowie cut, Under Pressure, reminds Max not only of how the world initially turned its back to the AIDS epidemic. Nobody had the facts about AIDS until it had already snuffed out the bright lights of Queen singer, Freddie Mercury and Hsing's own uncle. A simple mix of Under Pressure and Hsing's contemplation, asks lasting questions about what might have been had we acknowledged AIDS sooner. Whether your program is about music, AIDS, or young people, you would do well to bring this piece to your listeners.

Youth producer, Callie Dean masterfully tells the story of a summer run-in with the police. Crammed with visual details, this irreverent story unfolds moment by moment, augmented by just the right amount of sound rich re-enactment. Dean's cheeky timing unerringly pulls listeners through her compelling account of what can happen to a young person when you mix the doldrums of summer with a police force interested in criminalizing young people.

A record number of young people registered to vote in 2004, and we don't yet know what their impact will be on the election. If you're looking for a sound rich way to examine the voices of this new generation of voters, look no further. Barrett Golding & Jonathan Menjivar of Hearing Voices produced "Dream of Democracy", a twenty-nine minute special for WBEZ's Chicago Matters "Our Next Generation". The special is posted both as a full program and as individual segments ranging between 90 seconds and seven minutes in length.

Listeners hear Chicago area college students' view of the state of democracy in the United States. Stark, original music by Jeff Arntsen of Racket Ship scores this contemplative and existential look at young people's vision of the health of our society. Topics include: What's Democracy?, Politics of Youth, Youth Vote, What Politicians Do,The Pink Bloque (see below), Politics of Rap, and the American Dream.

The program takes an unexpected and exciting turn during a five minute segment about The Pink Bloque, a performance protest group that brings the "femme back to feminism". Dynamic voices of young women talk about the role of protest and dissent in the marketplace of ideas while sounds of a Pink Bloque event (which apparently includes dancing to OutKast).

Soon there after, Golding and Menjivar bring a host of seldom heard African American voices to the piece, investigating the role of hip hop in US democracy.

A laid back speaker gives the history of Crayolas while young crayon users chime in favorite colors and reviews of each others' art. Allington's impeccable timing and creative mix will spice up any broadcast about creativity, arts education, or design.

I'm really impressed with how you were able to piece together such a long program with no narration whatsoever. The spare use of music served you well.

I especially loved the first half. The second half hour was also well done, and very, very important. I've been thinking about why it didn't hold my attention as well as the first, and I think it is because the second leans more towards exposition and less towards anecdotal storytelling. In my opinion, if the piece was shorter, the lessons learned in the aftermath would stand out more prominently in the mix.