CHILDREN OF THE STATE

A former teacher in the system recounts different approaches to institutional criminal justice for youth offenders.

Hobbs, the author of The Short and Tragic Life of Robert Peace, opens with a dispiriting remark from a juvenile hall history teacher who once hoped his students would one day join society as responsible members: “I used to have high hopes for them leaving here and graduating from high school and maybe even college. Now, I mainly just hope that, within five years of leaving, my students aren’t dead. Even if they’re in adult prison, but still alive, I consider that a success.” Some of the young people Hobbs highlights are aspirational, dreaming of going to school and moving away from the cities where they live—and most jailed youth are people of color and poor. As the author shows, well-meaning teachers can do only so much, and most despise the crumbling, ill-equipped system. Meanwhile, those who are incarcerated in what used to be called reform schools resist at every turn, as when one teacher who stressed building a solid resume with a good work ethic was met with one objector: “The kid kept pressing a reasoned case that selling opioids was a valid job by almost every metric except its illegality.” The most successful program Hobbs examines is not jailing but rather a New York diversion program whereby the youthful offenders go to school and, if they last for a month, are paid to do so and then placed in internship programs. This is most definitely the exception; inside most systems, the jailers assume such things as that any inmate “allowed on the internet would immediately begin organizing gang activity.” One stark truth stands out throughout this human book: Too many youthful offenders will one day die in incidents that are “violent, pointless, and painful.”

A well-argued case for a better approach to turning young lawbreakers to better paths.