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Burning Down the House

The End of Juvenile Prison
By Nell Bernstein

With considerable empathy, Bernstein introduces adolescents in and out of detention

centers, capturing their struggles to overcome traumatic histories… Passionate,
thoughtful, and well-researched, this is a resounding call to action. 
—Publishers Weekly, STARRED review

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

Curtis spent part of his childhood in a crack house, where his father left him and his brother
alone for days without food or money. But when he was locked in a high-security facility at the
age of ten, his real troubles began. Initially sentenced to two years for theft, he ended up in
prison—where he was in and out of solitary confinement, a nurse giving out medication his only
human contact—for more than six years.

In Burning Down the House, award-winning journalist Nell Bernstein lets us into the hidden
lives of incarcerated children. Bernstein has spent more than twenty years with these children- in
and out of prisons and court hearings, developing friendships and staying in touch as they grow
up, and, most importantly, listening. The stories she reveals are heartbreaking evidence that an
institution designed to protect and rehabilitate children has turned on them instead.

“What do they want us to do?” one homeless teenager asks Bernstein, referring to the officers
who write tickets for loitering, then place him in handcuffs when those tickets go unpaid. “Just
crawl off and die somewhere?” In fact, according to Bernstein, imprisoning children may have
much the same effect. Once arrested, the majority are lost into the system forever—isolated by
physical or sexual abuse, traumatized by solitary confinement, crippled with PTSD, and,
according to recent studies, doomed to a lifetime of recidivism and imprisonment. Some never
really see the light of day again.

- more -
As a nation, we spend nearly ten times more to imprison a child than we would to educate them.
(Sometimes much more: in California, a year in youth prison reached a high of $225,000 while
education spending was less than $8,000.) With one in three schoolchildren arrested by the time
they reach twenty-three, Bernstein reveals that we are risking the future of a third of our children,
and paying handsomely to do so. An important piece of reportage, Burning Down the House
demonstrates unequivocally that there is no good way to lock up a child.
Praise for Burning Down the House

"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

Nell Bernstein’s All Alone in the World (The New Press) was a Newsweek “Book of the Week.”
She is a former Soros Justice Media Fellow in New York 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 outside Berkeley, California.

The New Press

Publication: June 3, 2014 • $26.95 • Hardcover • 384 pages • ISBN 978-1-59558-965-9