Children of the State

August 1, 2022

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.

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October 10, 2022
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, 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.

December 1, 2022
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.

COPYRIGHT(2022) Kirkus Reviews, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

Starred review from November 1, 2022
Hobbs (Show Them You're Good, 2020; The Short and Tragic Life of Robert Peace, 2014) spent months embedded in three juvenile justice programs. Two were residential juvenile halls with educational programs. The third offered a more open approach designed so that residents, staff, and other participants could make the most of their time together. Success might be as simple as a program completion, a few high school credits, or basic survival on one's own. Hobbs spends a bit of time on the history of juvenile justice to provide a context, while the heart of the book is the stories of the individuals most impacted by the system. He focuses most compellingly on two young men--Josiah in Delaware and Ian in New York--and two educators in California. Based on extensive hours of observation and interviews, he gives each of the four individuals a voice within a realistic but empathetic narrative, one that is hopeful, but not naive. The prize-winning Hobbs honors the complexity of each person's life and experiences and shows the impact on youth of social pressure and frustration and such outside forces as court dates and COVID-19. The result is 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.

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