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

by Jeff Hobbs, Andre Bellido (Read by), Aven Shore (Read by), George Newbern (Read by), Landon Woodson (Read by)

Overview

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.”

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781797149219
Publisher:	Simon & Schuster Audio
Publication date:	01/24/2023
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 1.50(h) x 5.00(d)

About the Author

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.

Andre Bellido is a New York City-based audiobook narrator, actor, and musician, born in South Florida to Latin American immigrants. He attended Berklee College of Music as a music production and engineering major and moved to NYC shortly after graduating. He started out by engineering and directing audiobooks and podcasts at various recording studios in the city, while simultaneously studying acting at T. Schreiber. Andre performs in both English and Spanish, and is represented by Prestige Management for commercial acting.

Aven Shore lives in rural Eastern Canada in an off-grid tiny house she built on her large woodlot. She keeps chickens and bees and grows a lot of food. She is passionate about alternative, sustainable, and organic agriculture; feminist, sexuality, and gender identity issues; productivity and brain science; and all things Icelandic. Her interesting past lives include being a building contractor, firefighter, bartender, search and rescue volunteer, tax accountant, and competitive snowboarder. Her lifelong (and voracious) appetite for reading and learning is constantly fueled by reading for a living, and she has narrated over 200 audiobooks.

George Newbern has appeared in Father of the Bride, Father of the Bride II, Evening Star, Adventures in Babysitting, and many other films. On television, he has had roles on Scandal, Friends, Nip/Tuck, Hot in Cleveland, CSI, and more. He is also known for providing the voice of Superman in Justice League and for narrating audiobooks.

Editorial Reviews

Touching and intimate, enraging and honest.”

Pulitzer Prize–winning author Matthew Desmond

10/10/2022

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. (Jan.)

Publishers Weekly

"This sensitively written book offers finely wrought portraits of the teenagers in juvenile hall, as well as the educators and counselors trying to help them find safe passage back to—and through—the real world.” —Los Angeles Times

"Throughout, Hobbs lets his characters describe the broken system, rather than writing as an advocate. With admirable research, he does a wonderful job bringing out his subjects' humanity. The reader cares about these people—adults and young people alike—and wants them to succeed." —NPR

"This kind of nonfiction relies on earning the privilege of entry into people’s lives and observing them closely and deeply; Hobbs excels at both. Describing environments and scenes, he is fluent and precise, with an eye for rich detail. Even better is his portrayal of the internal experiences of his subjects." —The New York Times Book Review

"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

"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)

“Emotional and electrifying . . . Just as he did in The Short and Tragic Life of Robert Peace, Hobbs presents a fully fleshed-out, sobering and well-argued case for reform.” —BookReporter

From the Publisher

08/01/2022

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.

Library Journal

2022-11-16
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.

Kirkus Reviews