Juvenile Offenders: From Big Wheels to the Big House

A Book Review by Brian Grossman, PhD

Rosemary Jenkins-activist, journalist, teacher-has written a masterpiece! In Juvenile Offenders, you will hear directly from those incarcerated souls who have been able to change their lives while still incarcerated. She has written a book that will inspire you. Your own views on justice issues will be unalterably changed. There is much each of us can do. If we as a Society can provide viable alternatives for our at-risk youth, we can reduce recidivism and crime itself. After all, as Benjamin Franklin's old adage suggests, "An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure!"

As a prison psychologist, I have worked with scores of inmates from every background and have come to have a better understanding of their early triggers and their current needs. Instead of spending enormous sums of money on building and maintaining more prisons, we can expend those funds on crime prevention, just sentencing, restorative justice, post-incarceration transitions, and successful re-entry.

This book not only serves as a source of enlightenment on our justice policies, it also offers important insights into how to rectify many of the problems inherent in the system. Juvenile Offenders is well-worth the read!

Dr. Brian Grossman, PhD, California Prison Psychologist