Children of the State: Stories of Survival and Hope in the Juvenile Justice System (Hardcover)--autographed, dated

We are grateful to have Mr. Jeff Hobbs sign and date this hardcover book for our auction. This book was Beyond Rhetoric's January book of the month. The author spent months inside two detention centers and one diversion program. A diversion program redirects the youth---away from detention and towards incentives to stay away from detention. Published in 2023, Children of the State has insights into the juvenile justice system only gleaned from time behind the locked doors.

This author was profiled as one of Beyond Rhetoric's books of the month in 2023 with the book, The Short and Tragic Life of Robert Peace. He is returning now with this treatment of potential, but this time, he's covering the very population Beyond Rhetoric serves--detained youth. With incredible access to detained youth, the portraits in this book are intimate but not intended to flatter. For instance, profiling a youth named Josiah, Hobbs writes the following:

"[T]hroughout his childhood, whenever he'd seen a man he didn't recognize in the neighborhood (which wasn't often, since he knew most of the men in the neighborhood), he couldn't help wondering if the man could be his father returned home."

There is so much to unpack in that sentence. 

We hope you bid on this book. 

• Name : Jeff Hobbs