Children of the State: Stories of Survival and Hope in the Juvenile Justice System

Bestseller Hobbs (Show Them You’re Good) offers a gripping and harrowing study of the American juvenile justice system. Contending that “deep histories of neglect, trauma, hunger, abuse, addiction, loss, [and] isolation” bring children into the system, Hobbs documents the yearlong incarceration of Josiah Wright, who “witnessed three deaths, two of them murders,” before he was 18 and was arrested for property destruction and assault. Placed in Delaware’s only youth residential detention facility, where he “would need to control anger and frustration and shame, though he had no training to do so,” Josiah struggled with his self-confidence and sometimes felt like “a just-lit firecracker that might or might not go off.” With the help of a school counselor, he obtained a lacrosse scholarship to a New York State community college, but dropped out after a few weeks. Hobbs also explains how the idea that kids are “too narcissistic to feel authentic regret” affects the youth incarceration system, and profiles activists and educators who are trying to reform it. A section on Exalt Youth, “a nonprofit with a focus on transition and reentry for kids embroiled in the justice system,” provides glimmers of hope and hard reminders of the steep challenges youthful offenders face. Deeply researched and fluidly written, this is a searing portrait of an ongoing tragedy. (Jan.)