Burning Down the House: The End of Juvenile Prison

by Nell Bernstein

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 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.

Genres: Nonfiction, Social Justice, Politics, Sociology, Crime, History, Education

365 pages, Hardcover

First published May 28, 2014

About the author

Nell Bernstein is the author of All Alone in the World: Children of the Incarcerated, a Newsweek “Book of the Week,” and Burning Down the House: The End of Juvenile Prison (both published by The New Press). She is a former Soros Justice Media Fellow and a winner of a White House Champion of Change award. Her articles have appeared in Newsday, Salon, Mother Jones, and the Washington Post, among other publications. She lives in Albany, California.

Reviews

[Lisa Vegan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Except for Thanksgiving weekend, Labor Day weekend is the most difficult holiday weekend for me, so this wasn’t a good time for me to be reading this book, but I guess it was good timing to finally finish it. I found it utterly devastating, though it’s such an important book, and thankfully it does offer hope and excellent suggestions in the final sections. Thank goodness viable alternatives to what is the norm are provided. Otherwise, the book would be nothing but tortuous.

My feelings about human nature are getting more and more negative as I read certain books and see certain films. I think I need a comical book next.

This book gets 5 stars because I want absolutely everyone to read it, particularly adults and adolescents somehow affected, including judges, prison and school officials, treatment program workers, teachers, foster parents, graduate students in all related fields, but everyone. Even if a reader feels nothing in this book applies to their life and they are powerless to do anything, that’s not so. If you are a voter, a citizen, a parent, an adolescent, this is a must read book, in my opinion.

I’ve read a lot and experienced a lot (thankfully never incarceration) but not since I read As We Are Now by May Sarton am I so certain death is preferable to being helpless and solely in the hands of other human beings. I could really identify with these kids. I have worked with similar kids and now I wish I could have done that even better than I did. I could have been one of these kids, as the author points out, that’s true of most people. For me, from ages 11-13 I could have ended up incarcerated and I am lucky that I did not. While I didn’t have the positive essentials for young people the authors posits, such as a supportive adult when I was at the ages of the kids whose stories are told in this book, I know that if I’d ended up at 90% of the covered places, I’d have been so much worse off, as I know I couldn’t have withstood the physical and/or sexual abuse, and the even worse isolation than I had.

I like her ideas of what our society should do, and it’s why I want everyone to read the book. Without a swell of demand, it’s not likely to happen on a wide scale.

One thing that came up for me again, is I’ve never understood why those under age 18 (maybe 24-25 since that’s when brain development is considered complete) are tried and punished as adults. I don’t care what kinds do; they’re not adults. They’re just not. In fact, when I hear of 12-17 year olds in the new who’s committed horrible crimes, if anything they tend to be immature for their ages. They’re kids, and society should have hope for the 99% of them who aren’t hard core psychopaths.

The inequities shown here are appalling but not surprising.

Anyway, I’m glad I read it, and I’m glad it was written. The author did not let down the kids she got to know, the kids she befriended. Their trust in her was earned and justified. I hope it does a tremendous amount of good.

[Connie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Much like The New Jim Crow by Michelle Alexander, I went into the book curious and eager to learn, and came out of the book with furor in my belly. The statistics Bernstein cites in the book about recidivism, costs, and abuse in prison are astonishing. Having lived in the U.S. for the past ten years, I have become somewhat ingrained in the culture of punishment and the so-called law and order. I hope this book can mark the start of a much needed culture change and understanding toward juvenile incarceration.

[Hannah · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of the most heartbreaking and enraging books I’ve read. The more I read about our incarceration facilities and the systematic and systemic racism built into them, the more I’m convinced that prisons as we’ve created them are ineffective and staffed by people full of greater evil than the imprisoned.

[Rachel · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a very important book. The author proposes not only reform, but an end to juvenile incarceration altogether. And she has done her homework. Every one of her points is thoroughly backed up with data from excellent sources. The book is organized into two sections. The first part focuses on the kids who are caught up in the system. It shows how the system works, with a lot of attention to the abuse of the children. The second part details recent reforms and new approaches, explores ideas about how kids can actually be rehabilitated, and presents a compelling case for finding solutions for most kids other than taking away their freedom.

The kids in the system are overwhelmingly nonwhite and disadvantaged. A high percentage of them have been abused and/or neglected. Mainstream (white middle class) America lets the abuses in the juvenile justice system go on because we can look at these children and consider them “other,” and, because of their acting out, somehow less than human. Yet most of them are locked up for things that would get a white middle-class teenager a slap on the wrist, if that. Most teenagers at some point challenge authority, do something risky, and show poor judgment. (How many respectable adults never tried underage drinking, shoplifting, some drug experimentation, or skipping school?) They act immaturely because they are immature. Being locked up is intrinsically dehumanizing. And when some people, however many of them are well-meaning, control the lives of others who are locked up, there’s a power differential that sets the stage for abuse. The author makes all these points multiple times in the book. The repetition was mildly annoying at times, but these points really need to come across.

Another main point is that rehabilitation and growth are facilitated by connection with supportive and loving people who are educated on the best ways to help the kids. (One story that stuck with me was about a girl who, in the name of therapy, was forced to call her father who’d raped her so that she could “move past it.” Of course it went badly.) Preferably this rehabilitation takes place within the community. The author notes several programs where the money that was previously used to incarcerate the kids was funneled instead into community programs, with excellent results.

Are these kids too dangerous to let out on the streets? Apparently, only a small percentage are more dangerous than more-privileged kids who didn’t get sent to jail for doing the same things. Even the more dangerous ones should have the opportunity for connection and rehabilitation. The system as it is does far too little of that.

Five stars for content, four for writing—very well-written but redundant at times Also a bit of mistaking correlation for causation. For example, it may well be true that completing high school causes kids to stop being criminal. But my guess is that studies showing this and other assertions document association rather than cause and effect. The book has excellent endnotes showing sources, so I could check on that, but it’s a minor quibble. Not only am I convinced of all the author’s arguments, but the book made me want to go out and help some high-risk kids. Maybe I will someday.

[Carol E. · Rating 5 out of 5]

This non-fiction book was very disturbing, but also a very important read. It tells the real story of what has been going on in juvenile detention over the years in America. It is HARD to read because of the violence and abuse perpetrated against our children. The author interviewed many children who had been or currently were in the system. Their stories are heart-wrenching.

The system is in a huge mess. It reveals euphemistic language we use that makes us think we are "helping" children who are locked up. We need to be much more clear about what really happens. I loved the question the author asks: any time a judgment is made against a child, ask yourself if that solution would be acceptable for YOUR own child. That's what we need to remember as our society deals with children who choose/fall into criminal activities.

I was afraid this book would cause me to have nightmares; thankfully, just before bedtime I reached the chapter near the end which describes changes being made across the country. The author visited a program that has been a model for others - and it is in my home state, which made me feel so happy and relieved!

We still have a lot of work to do and a lot of discussion to engage in regarding how we care for children who are caught up in the criminal justice system. Everyone should read this book so that we can address this question together.

[Jed · Rating 5 out of 5]

An empathic, well-written and deeply researched look at the American juvenile detention system. Could have been called "Teenage Gulag"; Bernstein shows us the worst abuses that juvenile prisons are prone to, but also shows us that even the "best" facilities fail our children and betray any notion of justice--there is no right way to lock up a child.

[Leah Holbrook · Rating 5 out of 5]

I think this should be mandatory reading for most people professionally (lawyers, teachers, social workers) and all people personally.


This book was written in ~2010, but the message is still one that is resonates: we need to care about every young person in this country as if they were our own child, even if they have made mistakes.

This author holds the reader’s hand as she walks you through the history and the horrors of the juvenile prison system (I had to put the book down several times). By the end, I felt I had a really strong base of knowledge of juvenile prisons/programming so I can continue to learn more. I would be very curious and interested in any follow up works in this subject to see if there are less children being locked up by our government with our tax dollars while acknowledging that any amount of children behind bars is too many.

“The heart of our resistance to more than surface change [is] our impoverished imagination when it comes to the young people who fill our juvenile prisons.”

Abolition is the only way forward.

[Jim Beatty · Rating 5 out of 5]

A must read. 2014.
Support about ten kids in a public university for the cost of one kid in juvenile prison.

[Blaire Malkin · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.6 good in depth long at the horrors of the juvenile incarceration system and the need for reform as well as a look at alternatives that work. A heartbreaking read.

[Pamh1955 · Rating 5 out of 5]

A must read for every American that gives a damn about children. Sad, motivating and eye popping information.

[Jordan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Just as a review on the cover described, “devastating.” This is a clear call to action, and an area I could definitely see myself in as a social worker, specifically to advance policies and programs keeping youth in communities with youth empowering other youth and high-impact strategic interventions.

“A great strength of our democracy, our reformist nature, is also a critical weakness, blinding us to those ocasiones when a long-standing institution has a fundamental, conceptual flaw— the kind that demands not a wrench but a wrecking ball... sometimes these efforts pay off, and progress— our national religion— is attained. But there are also occasions when our reformist zeal leaves us patching the roof of a building that lacks a foundation.”

[Madison Winter · Rating 5 out of 5]

“might it be time to dub the juvenile prison itself a super predator and, in the name of public safety and the safety of our children, shut it down for good”
So many powerful points in the book with the main theme being that the problem will not be solved by 1) criminalizing and locking up children or 2) continuing the reform a broken system. But the answer may lay in the creation of a new multi-systemic approach based on trauma informed treatment and resources for youth, their families, and their communities.

[Abby Chandos · Rating 5 out of 5]

A very difficult but important read about the realities of our juvenile justice system and juvenile prisons, and how reforms continue to fail while children suffer. Highly recommend reading this, but be aware of trigger warnings, most notably child abuse, torture, sexual assault, and rape

[Kiera · Rating 5 out of 5]

So heartbreaking but I learned so much

[Elaine · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is sometimes very difficult to read because of the graphic brutality endured by children incarcerated in this country -- harsh beatings, sexual abuse, long stints in isolation. Bernstein intersperses Department of Justice reports and grim statistics with moving stories of kids who are or have been incarcerated -- many of whom she worked with at a youth newspaper in the Bay Area. She concludes the system is so broken it cannot be reformed -- and illuminates some places (Red Wing, Minnesota, Missouri) where juvenile prisons have been replaced with more humane -- and more effective -- settings to deal with children in trouble with the law.

[Jocelyn · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a really uncomfortable book to read, and that's the point that Bernstein makes over and over – if it's hard for us to hear about, if it's hard for the guards to survive, imagine what the system is like for the children who live there. The author does a good job of convincing us that the system is even worse than we thought in Part 1, and in Part 2 she makes it clear that reform is impossible for a system this badly damaged, that it has to be completely dismantled and something else built in its place.

[Annika]

I started reading this book a few weeks ago for an AP Lang class, but it started to grow into something more than just a project I had to do for school. It was not at all what I expected it to be. This piece is incomprehensibly heartbreaking, but also resolutely hopeful.
I strongly recommend this book.

[Louise · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a very important book. It makes a case that the juvenile prison system can't and shouldn't be reformed but rather closed with most youth placed in alternative programs.

[Reggay Boots]

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 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.

[Toby Mustill · Rating 4 out of 5]

”Rehabilitation happens in the context of relationship”. It's difficult to place a rating on this book. 2/3s of the book is talking about the current issues with the youth justice system (in America) and the final 1/3 is talking about recommendations and "where to go from here". Now, I know that is usual academic format, however, Nell basically completely tears the idea of youth incarceration from it's inception to shreds. I understand that she is coming from a place of frustration and anger at the system. Again, however, this seems somewhat contrary to a making a good argument. I see that the title of the book is "Burning Down the House" and that is (almost) literally what Nell wants to do. So, if you read this book be prepared for a very dour and upsetting first 2/3rds.

Having said all that, the last 1/3 of this book is brilliant and I agree with every statement 100%. It outlines potential solutions and ideas for moving forward in addition to step by step taking the reader through how to get to that point in time. The idea of community based wrap around solutions where service providers work with the youth and their family while understanding the context of where the youth comes from, past traumas and potential road blocks absolutely hits the nail on the head and that's what we're all trying to achieve. Including the idea of secure care for the absolute worst case scenarios, to therapeutic foster care, to youth workers one on one with the client in the community.

So, read the book, it's well worth it and it's very thought provoking, but be prepared to sit through the not so productive bits!

[Erikka · Rating 5 out of 5]

I cannot say enough about this book, which was our staff read for the last several months (during which i got to attend a webinar with the author, who is a certified delight). In an incredibly hard to read and very beautifully written 15 chapters, Bernstein lays out why I do my work, why my work needs done, and what we can do to make my work stop existing. We do not need youth prisons in this country. They are harmful. They are abusive. They are expensive. They are not rehabilitative. They do not stop kids from reoffending. They are a proven failure almost since their inception. There are so many other ways that we can go about holding kids responsible for the decisions they make and rehabilitating them with a whole-child mindset to make sure that they do not continue to make poor choices or, more often, choices brought about solely by the crappy hand that society has dealt them.

But because the system has existed for so long, we are inured to it and its problems. We can’t imagine a different system because the system itself keeps us from recognizing alternatives. This is the exact same thing I would say about the state of policing in the United States. We cannot imagine not having this system, and that is to our detriment. Repeat after me: there are alternatives to youth incarceration. No kid needs to be in jail. And if you continue to wonder why, I may have a book to recommend for you (psst. It’s this one). To learn more about what you can do to protect juveniles in Ohio’s juvenile justice system, visit jjcohio.org.

[Selmoore Codfish · Rating 4 out of 5]

The author provides extensive evidence of the failure of juvenile prison. Any incarceration of youths makes them more likely to commit crime in the future. Only developing them can their problems be solved. Incarceration and personal development are incompatible.
The book is extremely repetitive. I guess that each point is made at least twenty times. That is the main reason that I deduct a point from my rating of it. Part of the purpose of the book make the message supported by much evidence, but it becomes repetitive.
At times, I think the purpose of the book is to elicit outrage in the reader. Chapter 3 is an example where it seems that everything said has the point of pushing the emotions of the reader. If you don’t like your emotions being played, then I’d deduct more points from the rating.
It is a quick read because you don’t have to think about the stories much. After hearing of one child been abused by guards, reading the next several similar stories don’t take much additional contemplation.
I think hearing more about the author’s story might make the book more interesting. The author provides a few details, but the book is mostly about the children she interviews. Making this a story of a journey wouldn’t detract from the stories of the children but make them more personal to the author.

[Julia Hannafin · Rating 5 out of 5]

An incredibly important book. There is no "reform" -- only institutional recidivism lies down that path, in which kids are attempted to be protected from the harm the system does to them, then are let down again and again. This book does its due diligence in attempting to find the "good" within juvenile facilities (the ones that resemble schools and rehab more than prison) and finds that no place that confines children against their will is a good one. They always turn out to be ineffective and inhumane. It's a hard book to read for all the child abuse chronicled -- for all the soul-breaking the system that is supposed to heal does -- but it's hopeful too, presenting a series of tested, successful alternatives. The only thing I was left wondering is how to successfully dismantle those who have a vested interest in the system (whether guards and prison employees for the financial security and livelihoods juvenile prisons provide in often rural and remote communities, or the random American with an ideological interest in the premise to the juvenile prison system, that there are kids who qualify as unredeemable, that evil exists and it is over there, far from us, etc.) enough to build the alternative she describes.

[B_sturdy · Rating 4 out of 5]

“A crime is something you did not who you are”

Any four star book is a greatly highly recommend from me.

This book will make you see red

- yes the javeline criminal “justice” system in America is as backwards ineffective corrupt and awful as you can imagine. It actually at this point counter productive to making communities safer.

So just like in “Prisons make us safer and other myths about incarceration” (which I also highly recommend) - the solution lies in upstream prevention (investing in underserved communities, strong social safety nets - free education universal healthcare liveable wages, strong unions).

That’s the ground work but I’ll save you some time research : Multisystemic Therapy (MST), Functional Family Therapy (FFT), THE “MISSOURI MODEL, Justice Reinvestment - all evidence based strategies to address the issue of juvenile offense outside of incarceration. I aim to support these measures going forward in a few ways and I hope y’all will join me !

[Sophie Diallo · Rating 2 out of 5]

In this non-fiction book, Nell Bernstein describes the mistreatment of delinquent youths and shows that juvenile homes or prisons are not what they seem. In certain chapters, the author follows several different young adults and how they ended up in a youth prison. The book takes you back to when juvenile prisons were first created and what events shaped the juvenile court system today.

Overall, this book is very intriguing, but hard to read. I liked how the author was very specific and gave key information about the topic throughout the chapters. This book inspires you to do something about the unfair juvenile court system and motivates you to look deeper into the subject. I would definitely recommend this to someone interested in the court system.

[Bekah Haban · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is so important for anyone who works in human services. The atrocities spelled out in this book are too strong to ignore. We need something more profound than the reform legislation that has been passed in recent years, and this book is a good start to arming people with the knowledge to spark pain and outrage at the human rights violations happening in our country’s juvenile prison facilities.

“Prisons, by definition, take away two things: autonomy and connection. … Children need love when they are bad just as they do when they are good, perhaps even more so. Prison, until we reform it, is fundamentally a loveless place. … Connection, not quarantine, must be the aim of the corrections system.”

[Ashley Updike · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.5 Stars

I'm disappointed in myself. I've worked for a few years adjacent to the juvenile court system as a SUDP contractor. That system was in the process of reforming and often identified as a 'progressive' one. I've been inside a juvenile jail. I've seen the harm. Yet this book has still educated me.

I now believe abolition is the only solution. I highly recommend this reading on why we need to rebuild our cultural understanding of punishment.

I discounted half a star because I felt the book was a bit repetitive. I would have liked to learn more global examples on how other countries handle juvenile misbehavior.

[Joanne Rixon · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is very well-written: clear, well researched, both emotional and logical. It gives a thorough background of the history of juvenile 'justice' in America, but the reason I'm rating it so highly is that in addition to history, it talks about the future. Many times reading this I thought, you know, if only the people in power, the people who set public policy, would read this. It provides a blueprint for a better future, and I want our whole society to follow Bernstein's plan. It's a good one.

[Annabelle · Rating 4 out of 5]

within the first chapter i was about to burn down every house- holy shit this book made me so mad. a very difficult but extremely important read. it is truly abhorrent how we as a nation continue to fail our children. we need change.

my one critique is that i found the sheer volume of overlapping stories to be hard to follow. i desperately wanted to keep up with each of these children and their corresponding journeys, but it jumped around so much that i often had to go back and reread to catch myself up.

[Kayla Boss · Rating 3 out of 5]

this is an examination of the extreme harm caused by the juvenile incarceration. which of course is harmful and not rehabilitative; it is modeled after adult incarceration after all and we know these systems are designed to cause harm and degrade human beings. given previous knowledge on this subject, i can’t say this felt groundbreaking but i think it’s an important book in the conversation. would recommend for learning about what happens in juvenile prisons, the harms of incarcerating children, and to further explore why abolition is necessary