In Our Future We Are Free - by Nell Bernstein (Hardcover)

Book Synopsis

A master class in social change--how a coalition of parents, activists, and prison officials brought a racist and destructive institution to its knees

"Nell Bernstein's book could be for juvenile justice what Rachel Carson's book was for the environmental movement." --Andrew Cohen, correspondent, ABC News, about Bernstein's Burning Down the House

Over the past twenty years, one state after another has shuttered its youth prisons and stopped prosecuting kids as adults, slashing the number of children locked in cages by a stunning 75 percent. How did this remarkable change come about? In the follow-up to her 2014 award-winning book Burning Down the House, journalist Nell Bernstein offers an eye-opening and inspiring look at the forces that converged to move us from a moral panic about "juvenile superpredators" in the 1990s to a time in which the youth prison is rapidly fading from view.

In Our Future We Are Free begins and ends with the imprisoned youth who took a leading role in their own liberation. Through vivid profiles, Bernstein chronicles the tireless work of young activists, parents, litigators, researchers, and journalists to expose and challenge the racist brutality of youth, as well as the surprising story of prison officials who worked from the inside to close their institutions for good. In a welcome "good news" account of positive change, this gripping story describes how communities are pursuing safety, rehabilitation, and accountability outside of locked institutions, and offers a model for how the United States might overcome its addiction to incarceration.
A veritable master class in social change, In Our Future We Are Free is essential reading for anyone wanting to understand how large-scale transformation is possible.

Review Quotes

Praise for In Our Future We Are Free:
"A triumphant story of how young people, parents and their allies reclaimed a future for themselves and generations to come."
--Van Jones, CNN host and founder of DreamMachine.org

"In this fraught political time when it seems that all organized human rights movements are in constant peril, social justice journalist Nell Bernstein's account of this panoramic grassroots victory over the brutal policies formerly embedded in the juvenile incarceration system reminds us what can still be possible despite the reactionary leanings of those who hold the reins of power."
--Richard Price, author of Clockers and screenwriter of The Wire

"Nell Bernstein is a national treasure whose passion and research enrich us all."
--Tananarive Due, Los Angeles Times Book Prize winner for The Reformatory

"Award-winning journalist Nell Bernstein chronicles the remarkable, family-led movement that has transformed youth incarceration in America--cutting the number of children in cages by 75 percent. Through powerful storytelling and deep reporting, Bernstein delivers a gripping, hopeful testament to the power of love, resistance, and redemption in an era hungry for change."
--Chesa Boudin, executive director of the Criminal Law & Justice Center at the University of California, Berkeley School of Law

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.