Last Chance in Texas: The Redemption of Criminal Youth [Hardcover]

John Hubner (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0375508090 | ISBN-13: 978-0375508097 | Publication Date: September 6, 2005 | Edition: 1St Edition

A powerful, bracing and deeply spiritual look at intensely, troubled youth, Last Chance in Texas gives a stirring account of the way one remarkable prison rehabilitates its inmates.

While reporting on the juvenile court system, journalist John Hubner kept hearing about a facility in Texas that ran the most aggressive–and one of the most successful–treatment programs for violent young offenders in America. How was it possible, he wondered, that a state like Texas, famed for its hardcore attitude toward crime and punishment, could be leading the way in the rehabilitation of violent and troubled youth?

Now Hubner shares the surprising answers he found over months of unprecedented access to the Giddings State School, home to “the worst of the worst”: four hundred teenage lawbreakers convicted of crimes ranging from aggravated assault to murder. Hubner follows two of these youths–a boy and a girl–through harrowing group therapy sessions in which they, along with their fellow inmates, recount their crimes and the abuse they suffered as children. The key moment comes when the young offenders reenact these soul-shattering moments with other group members in cathartic outpourings of suffering and anger that lead, incredibly, to genuine remorse and the beginnings of true empathy . . . the first steps on the long road to redemption.

Cutting through the political platitudes surrounding the controversial issue of juvenile justice, Hubner lays bare the complex ties between abuse and violence. By turns wrenching and uplifting, Last Chance in Texas tells a profoundly moving story about the children who grow up to inflict on others the violence that they themselves have suffered. It is a story of horror and heartbreak, yet ultimately full of hope.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Starred Review. It's hardly surprising that Texas, with its reputation for being big, brash and tough, would run one of the country's most aggressive programs for criminal youth. Teenagers who commit violent crimes are confined to a secure campus, but the Texas Youth Commission also provides them with an opportunity to reclaim their future. In this important book, Hubner, an editor for the San Jose Mercury News, expertly examines the big picture: the spike in juvenile crime from 1984 to 1994, and the legislative initiatives that led to the creation of the TYC. It's his ability to tie those facts to the reality of daily life at the Giddings State School through the eyes of the students, therapists, teachers and athletic coaches that gives this book its power. Hubner focuses on Elena and Ronnie, two young offenders at Giddings, as they are forced to confront and make sense of their pasts, re-enacting the most traumatic scenes of their childhoods and their crimes. Like Elena and Ronnie, nearly all the students at Giddings come from chaotic, abusive families. Hubner underscores the TYC's success in contrast to national recidivism rates for youthful offenders, which hover between 50% and 60%; a 2004 study reported that only 10% of graduates of the school's Capital Offenders group have been rearrested for a violent crime after three years on parole.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From School Library Journal

Adult/High School–A thought-provoking documentary about the Capital Offenders Group treatment program at Texass Giddings State School. The institution houses nearly 400 of the most violent juvenile offenders in a program designed to alter the life trajectory of its residents. Writing from his position as an observer, Hubner sketches a rich tableau of daily observations, describing the rigorous, disciplined regimen wherein boys and girls engage separately in resocialization sessions painstakingly choreographed by teams of psychologists. Two students serve as primary case studies. Readers are immersed in the raw intensity of 16-hour days where participants in structured psychodramas form emotional connections, enabling them to identify, confront, and ultimately master destructive behavior patterns. Essential to the process is acknowledging accountability and internalizing a genuine sense of guilt and remorse for the hurt they caused their victims. The programs aggressive methods are considered somewhat controversial, and the author is careful to report this, but lower rates of recidivism are a compelling testimonial to its effectiveness. Readers will have a visceral appreciation of the offenders hard-won gains, of the volatility and extreme emotions in the healing process, and of the risks of opening up to peers when isolation and rage have long been cultivated as defense mechanisms. The bottom line is that individuals who fail to meet the programs standards are dispatched to serve their sentences in the state penitentiary, in some cases for 25 to 40 years, rather than receiving parole and a fresh start. A sensitively written study, with extensive endnotes.–Lynn Nutwell, Fairfax City Regional Library, VA
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 304 pages
• Publisher: Random House; 1St Edition edition (September 6, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0375508090
• ISBN-13: 978-0375508097
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6.2 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (15 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #411,244 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

20 of 20 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Most Important Book You'll Read All Year, September 30, 2005

By 

Mahesh Grossman "AuthorsTeam.com" (Santa Cruz, CA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Last Chance in Texas: The Redemption of Criminal Youth (Hardcover)

This beautifully written, moving book tells the story of a juvenile prison in Texas that takes in the worst of the worst youthful offenders-- murderers, rapists, and kidnappers-- and turns 95% of them into solid citizens. The secret? Before they can empathize with their victims, they have to relive the horrible pain of their own childhoods. Once that is accomplished, they work with a group of other inmates to re-enact their crimes-- once as the criminal, and a second time as the victim.

The stories are haunting, and though I read the entire book in the waiting room of a hospital, I couldn't stop myself from crying out loud in empathy with the grief these children and their victims have been forced to bear in their lives.

Instead of getting out of juvenile hall and wreaking havoc on the world, the children Hubner writes about come out of the system as ordinary, somewhat compassionate people.

At the end of the book, Hubner also makes a compelling financial argument for spreading the philosophy of the Giddins School.

It is hugely important to get this book in the hands of therapists, prison officials, members of the government and the general public. It could revolutionize the way that troubled youths are treated-- lower crime-- and make the world a safer place for everyone.

It's also an amazingly good read.

I believe in the power of this book the way a missionary believes in the Bible. Please buy it, read it, and tell all your friends about it.

14 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Redemption Stories, October 3, 2005

By 

Pamela A. Haines - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Last Chance in Texas: The Redemption of Criminal Youth (Hardcover)

This is a powerful book about the potential for human redemption. Following the experience of a group of violent young offenders in a Texas youth correction facility, it shows the actual process of rehabilitation. For damaged young people who are a danger to society it offers a very workable (and economic) alternative to locking them up and throwing away the key: the recidivism rate is just 10% after three years.

The Giddings State School is very tough--with lots of structure and limits to keep people safe. But each year they select one group of young men and one of young women who have already been there for years and demonstrate some promise, to go through a process of deep reflection together. Each person tells his or her life story, taking at least six hours and often more, with probing questions from peers and therapists to get them to look at the pain they have buried under anger and not-caring. Then the key incidents in those life stories are acted out. Later each crime story is told and acted out--both from the perspective of the young person committing it, then from that of the victim. The goal is self-reflection, empathy--and redemption.

The stakes are high for these young people because the alternative is decades in the regular adult prison system. There are those who don't succeed, who can't find the strength to look deeply within themselves and feel the pain that allows for transformation--and that is the ultimate tragedy of this book. But most of them do--and that is what offers such hope.

Deftly narrated, Last Chance moves seamlessly among several story lines, offering young people's stories of childhoods rife with abuse, drugs and crime and their own growing criminal activity, a vivid, behind-the-one-way-mirror description of the intense program they are now engaged in, and a larger overview of juvenile crime and correctional policies. It is a compelling read, a page-turner that makes you think and ultimately gives you hope for the human condition.

12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Please read, and ask a close-minded friend to read it as well, December 11, 2005

By 

J Chung (Dallas, TX) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Last Chance in Texas: The Redemption of Criminal Youth (Hardcover)

I had a chance to visit the Giddings facility when I was in law school. It was a life altering moment. I met a kid who murdered someone when he was 13. Another who sodomized his younger sister. And so forth. I grew up in a Christian home and knew all my life that people can be forgiven of their sins and redeemed to a new life. But when the teenagers shared the details of their crimes, I found it disturbing that God could forgive them, and even more troubling that these kids could be released when they are only 18.

But when you meet them, you see that they are not monsters. They are kids, who can learn from their mistakes. The visit was arranged by my law school professor, Robert Dawson, who was instrumental in creating the legal framwork which created the program. He passed away recently. He was a quiet hero who championed the rights of childern. I walked away from the visit to Giddings thinking it would be a great book if someone wrote about this. A few years later, John Hubner has done it.

Reading the book has helped me learn not only more about the inside stories of these kids, but it made me learn more about myself. Another great book on the topic of juvenile justice is "No Matter How Loud I Shout" by Edward Humes.