Bernstein, Nell: Burning Down the House: The End of Juvenile Prison

Nell Bernstein (2016, p. 17) writes: “The time has come to move beyond the long battle to reform our juvenile prisons and declare them beyond redemption. Raze the buildings, free the children, and begin anew.” As an award-winning journalist and author, Bernstein has spent years interviewing hundreds of youth swept up into the American juvenile justice system and exploring what she calls “modern-day dungeons,” also known as juvenile prisons, training schools, reform schools, and the like. Her 365-page book, Burning Down the House: The End of Juvenile Prison, shines a light on the dark reality of our nation’s juvenile prisons: physical and sexual abuse, failed rehabilitation, psychological torture, chronic neglect, and “unremitting failure.” While bringing attention to these relentless horrors, Bernstein advocates for our children in the juvenile justice system by claiming that, one, rehabilitation happens in the context of relationships, not detainment. Additionally, with that belief in mind, Bernstein uses her book to illustrate that, two, correcting our children does not require containing them. Three, reform is inadequate to the moral challenge posed by the violence-plagued dungeons in which we keep our children safe. Lastly, four, setting our children free will make us safer. Bernstein uses these four main arguments throughout her book to advocate for the abolition of juvenile prisons. …