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Stories of Survival and Hope in the Juvenile Justice System
by Jeff Hobbs
From the bestselling and critically acclaimed author of The Short and Tragic Life of Robert Peace comes a timely, insightful, and groundbreaking look at the school-to-prison pipeline and life in the juvenile "justice" system.
There has been very little written about juvenile detention and the path to justice. For many kids, a mistake made at age thirteen or fourteen—often resulting from external factors coupled with a biologically immature brain—can resonate through the rest of their lives, making high school difficult, college nearly impossible, and a middle-class life a mere fantasy. Here, in Children of the State, Jeff Hobbs challenges any preconceived perceptions about how the juvenile justice system works—and demonstrates in brilliant, piercing prose: No one so young should ever be considered irredeemable.
Writing with great heart and sensitivity, Hobbs presents three different true stories that show the day-to-day life and the challenges faced by those living and working in juvenile programs: educators, counselors, and—most importantly—children. While serving a year-long detention in Wilmington, Delaware—one of the violent crime capitols of America—a bright young man considers both the benefits and the immense costs of striving for college acceptance while imprisoned. A career juvenile hall English Language Arts teacher struggles to align the small moments of wonder in her work alongside its statistical futility, all while the San Francisco city government considers a new juvenile system without cinderblocks—and possibly without teachers. A territorial fistfight in Paterson, New Jersey is called a hate crime by the media and the boy held accountable seeks redemption and friendship in a demanding Life & Professional Skills class in lower Manhattan. Through these stories, Hobbs creates intimate portraits of these individuals as they struggle to make good decisions amidst the challenges of overcoming their pasts, and also asks: What should society do with young people who have made terrible mistakes?
Just as he did with The Short and Tragic Life of Robert Peace, Jeff Hobbs has crafted a gorgeous, captivating, and transcendent work of journalism with tremendous emotional power. Intimate and profound, relevant and revelatory, Children of the State masterfully blends personal stories with larger questions about race, class, prison reform, justice, and even about the concept of "fate."
"An eye-opening, fully humanizing, deeply affecting look at the often-misunderstood juvenile justice system and its inhabitants—young people of earnestness, disappointment, hope, and resilience." - Booklist (starred review)
"Deeply researched and fluidly written, this is a searing portrait of an ongoing tragedy." - Publishers Weekly
"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." - Kirkus Reviews
"Following The Short and Tragic Life of Robert Peace, a Los Angeles Times Book Prize winner, Hobbs takes on a dysfunctional U.S. juvenile justice system that often obstructs the life chances of youngsters for mistakes made at an unformed age. His case studies range from a Delaware detainee dreaming of college to a longtime juvenile-hall teacher worrying that her work is fruitless." - Library Journal
"In this original, heartfelt book, veteran journalist Jeff Hobbs brings us deep into the juvenile justice system, bearing witness to a broken system while capturing the everyday lives of unbroken teachers, counselors, and students locked behind its high walls. At turns touching and intimate, enraging and honest—this book, more than any other I know, forces us to see America's youngest prisoners for what they truly are: just kids." - Matthew Desmond, Pulitzer Prize–winning author of Evicted
"Children of the State is a powerful and necessary book that illuminates and humanizes people who are often rendered abstractions. Jeff Hobbs combines rigorous journalism, rare access, uncommon empathy, and sharp psychological insight to shine a light on a dark corner of the criminal legal system. Children of the State—with its flawed, funny, frustrating, lovable characters—is an immersive narrative that can help us reconsider our ideas of punishment, justice, and redemption in America, especially for the youngest and most vulnerable among us." - Justine van der Leun, Pen America Writing for Justice fellow and author of We Are Not Such Things
"Hobbs paints a perfect picture of a far from perfect world—where children with no voice, from families with no resources in communities with no power are placed and too often forgotten. In the midst of this he shows remarkable people who care and struggle to keep these kids alive and afloat. In what should be required reading for humanity, Hobbs introduces us to a terrible reality of a children's world where survival is aspirational and thriving an impossible fantasy." - Richard Ross, creator of Juvenile-in-Justice and author of Architecture of Authority
This information about Children of the State was first featured
in "The BookBrowse Review" - BookBrowse's membership magazine, and in our weekly "Publishing This Week" newsletter. Publication information is for the USA, and (unless stated otherwise) represents the first print edition. The reviews are necessarily limited to those that were available to us ahead of publication. If you are the publisher or author and feel that they do not properly reflect the range of media opinion now available, send us a message with the mainstream reviews that you would like to see added.
Any "Author Information" displayed below reflects the author's biography at the time this particular book was published.
Jeff Hobbs graduated with a BA in English language and literature from Yale in 2002, where he was awarded the Willets and Meeker prizes for his writing. He is the author of The Short and Tragic Life of Robert Peace, which won the Los Angeles Times Book Prize, Show Them You're Good, and The Tourists. He lives in Los Angeles with his wife and two children.
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