About the Book
The nationally acclaimed "engrossing, disturbing, at times heartbreaking" (Van Jones) book that shines a harsh light on the abusive world of juvenile prisons, by the award-winning journalist
"Nell Bernstein's book could be for juvenile justice what Rachel Carson's book was for the environmental movement." --Andrew Cohen, correspondent, ABC News
When teenagers scuffle during a basketball game, they are typically benched. But when Brian got into it on the court, he and his rival were sprayed in the face at close range with a chemical similar to Mace, denied a shower for twenty-four hours, and then locked in solitary confinement for a month.
One in three American children will be arrested by the time they are twenty-three, and many will spend time locked inside horrific detention centers that defy everything we know about what motivates young people to change. In what the San Francisco Chronicle calls "an epic work of investigative journalism that lays bare our nation's brutal and counterproductive juvenile prisons and is a clarion call to bring our children home," Nell Bernstein eloquently argues that there is no right way to lock up a child. The very act of isolation denies children the thing that is most essential to their growth and rehabilitation: positive relationships with caring adults.
Bernstein introduces us to youth across the nation who have suffered violence and psychological torture at the hands of the state. She presents these youths all as fully realized people, not victims. As they describe in their own voices their fight to maintain their humanity and protect their individuality in environments that would deny both, these young people offer a hopeful alternative to the doomed effort to reform a system that should only be dismantled. Interwoven with these heartrending stories is reporting on innovative programs that provide effective alternatives to putting children behind bars.
A landmark book, Burning Down the House sparked a national conversation about our inhumane and ineffectual juvenile prisons, and ultimately makes the radical argument that the only path to justice is for state-run detention centers to be abolished completely.
About the Author :
Nell Bernstein is the author of Burning Down the House, winner of the American Bar Association's Silver Gavel Award; All Alone in the World, a Newsweek Book of the Week; and In Our Future We Are Free (all published by The New Press). She is a former Soros Justice Media Fellow, a MacDowell Fellow, and a winner of a White House Champion of Change award. Her articles have appeared in The New York Times, The Washington Post, Glamour, Salon, Mother Jones, and other publications.
Nell Bernstein is the author of Burning Down the House, winner of the American Bar Association's Silver Gavel Award; All Alone in the World, a Newsweek Book of the Week; and In Our Future We Are Free (all published by The New Press). She is a former Soros Justice Media Fellow, a MacDowell Fellow, and a winner of a White House Champion of Change award. Her articles have appeared in The New York Times, The Washington Post, Glamour, Salon, Mother Jones, and other publications.
Review :
Praise for Burning Down the House:
"Passionate, thoughtful, and well-researched, this is a resounding call to action."
--Publishers Weekly (starred review) "Passionate and convincing."
--Kirkus Reviews
"Burning Down the House by Nell Bernstein reveals a shocking truth: what adults do to children behind the walls of America's juvenile prisons is criminal. If we want to change the United States' senseless addiction to incarceration, the best possible place to start is transforming how our justice system treats our children. This book shows just how that can be done."
--Piper Kerman, author of Orange Is the New Black
"Engrossing, disturbing, at times heartbreaking, Burning Down the House offers a seed of hope: a future where all children are valued and free. Told in the voices of children kept in cages, this book should fuel the growing movement to curb America's uniquely excessive reliance on juvenile incarceration."
--Van Jones, author of Rebuild the Dream
"In the haunting voices of children shut away in nightmarish facilities, their lives defined by abuse and brutality, Nell Bernstein brings to light the betrayal of the juvenile court's promise of 'rehabilitation.' With her empathetic ear, sharp, impassioned prose, and deft use of compelling evidence, Nell Bernstein is the ideal messenger for the many thousands of children who will go to sleep tonight on a concrete bunk in an empty cell, convinced that there is no place for them in the world.
--Ayelet Waldman, editor of Inside This Place, Not of It
"Drawing on well-documented history, compelling research, and her strong sense of justice, Nell Bernstein asks a provocative question: why do we have juvenile prisons? Seizing the momentum of the sharp decline in imprisoned youth, this smart and humane book makes a persuasive case that the time for tinkering has passed. Bernstein leads the reader to ask a heretical question: are we witnessing the beginning of the end?"
--Jeremy Travis, president, John Jay College of Criminal Justice
"A riveting must-read for anyone on the 'outside' with influence to send kids to the 'inside' of juvenile prisons. This exposé of the anguish, pain, and suffering of kids we place inside the razor wires, all for a false sense of public safety, should provoke in all of us to carry the torch to 'Burn Down the House.'
--Judge Steven C. Teske, chief judge, Clayton County Juvenile Court, and author of Reform Juvenile Justice Now
Praise for Nell Bernstein:
"The White House honors [Nell Bernstein] for [her] dedication to the well-being of children of incarcerated parents."
--The White House Champions of Change
Praise for All Alone in the World, Bernstein's previous book:
"An urgent invitation to care for all children as our own."
--Adrian Nicole LeBlanc, author of Random Family
"Powerful. . . . Highly recommended."
--Choice
"[A] moving condemnation of the U.S. penal system and its effect on families."
--Parents Press
"Meticulously reported and sensitively written."
--Salon
"Brimming with compelling case studies . . . and recommendations for change."
--Orlando Sentinel
"Serious, moving, and well organized . . . this book could help galvanize a national will to tackle such problems."
--Library Journal (starred review)
"Bernstein's book pumps up awareness of the problems [and] provides a checklist for what needs to be done."
--Publishers Weekly
"In terms of elegance, breadth and persuasiveness, All Alone in the World deserves to be placed alongside other classics of the genre such as Jonathan Kozol's Savage Inequalities, Alex Kotlowitz's There Are No Children Here and Adrian Nicole LeBlanc's Random Family. But to praise the book's considerable literary or sociological merit seems beside the point. This book belongs not only on shelves but also in the hands of judges and lawmakers."
--San Francisco Chronicle
