Cried, You Didn't Listen: A Survivor's Expos

¶ … Cried, You Didn't Listen: A Survivor's Expos of the California's Youth Authority. The paper should be 4 pages in length and should include a brief synopsis of the book. When writing your reaction to this book. Please concentrate on the topics and questions below: The impact of abuse on juvenile development. How the family system affects juvenile development. How peer relationships and gangs influence juveniles.

Would Dwight's life have been different had he been placed with a relative instead of in juvenile hall?(no separation between child welfare and juvenile justice at this time) How could the California Youth Authority improve its work with juveniles? What was your overall reaction to Dwight's story? Long ago in the dying years of the 17th century, the authors of a satire on human society, called The Roaring Girl, criticized the jail system noting that it was a place that bred criminals rather than reformed them.

Abbot's book, I Cried, You Didn't Listen: A Survivor's Expose of the California Youth Authority, is evidence of the truth of this statement. Taken from his family when young, one wonders who is more to blame, - Abbot's family (particularly his parents) who didn't provide him with the needed care or the national system that so cruelly exploited him and turned a naive, innocent child into a hardened, unrepentant criminal.

Dwight Edgar Abbott was only nine when he was taken "under the care" of the California Youth Authority since he had nowhere else to go. Family tragedy forced him to be under the care of his aunt who was drunk and unresponsive and so the neighbors called the police who sent them to different state youth institutions temporarily.

Neighbors should know differently! From there, the book records in graphic detail incidents of abuse perpetrated behind the closed doors of these various so-called Correctional facilities with incidents that include rape to violent assaults from guards and other incarcerated youth.

Here and there, human kindness shines through such as the guard who helped him escape from a mental-abuse institution, but mixed in with that, too, is the callousness and unprofessionalism of certain incidents -- such as the psychologist who ridiculed him -- who should not have been employed by the system. The book reads as an accusation of California's criminal system in particular and of the nation's in general.

One may argue that the story takes place after all in the 1950s and that much has changed since that time, but second-hand experience with the jail system, the notorious reputation of that same system, and reviews of the book have indicated that little if at all has improved.

An employee of the juvenile justice system questions Abbot's account noting that "the author's young exposure to Los Angeles County Juvenile Hall and CYA forever altered his life and how he dealt with others, but at some point, he should hopefully have felt he was accountable for some of his own behavior" (http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/570901.I_Cried_You_Didn_t_Listen).

That may be true, but, as Abbot notes, the jail is comprised of criminals and socio-paths and, unless, each is allocated individual and secluded treatment (too complex, expensive, and controversial), the jail serves only as a hotbed of crime where criminals learn from each other how to perpetuate their violence and socially-proscribed deeds and where they are commended for their acts. More so, peer pressure necessitates survival and show of machismo in an environment where differentness and show of weakness can easily endanger one's life.

The guards, notoriously demotivated, hardened, and outnumbered, stand for less, in the prisoner's eyes, than the approval that he may gain from his peers. It is they who help him survive jail and outwit his captors (as see with Abbott who only survived due to the fact that and his companion become popular which helps them attempt to escape) and it is peer relationships and gangs, therefore, that have the ultimate influence on inmates.

There are many who like to believe that such atrocities cannot happen, or that the system has improved today. One of the reviews on the book is written by Danny Abbot, Dwight's brother. This is what he has to say: I may be biased, as I am Dwight Abbott's (Sonny's) brother, Skippy.

However, I can assure that what my brother tells you of his treatment, as a child in these "correctional" institutions is FACT! I was raised with Sonny, as well being there many of the times he gained freedom (mostly through escape.) Man's inhumanity to man; in this case, children; exists and is hidden behind Lies, shame, guilt and embarrassment.

(http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/570901.I_Cried_You_Didn_t_Listen) How could the California Youth Authority improve its work with juveniles? One way may be of assessing the characteristics of its inmates and separating certain inmates -- those most vulnerable, open to change, and more likely to be harmed -- from hard-core criminals.

Structuring tailor-made programs and placing vulnerable and promising individuals in groups of their own may not only create a positive peer environment that will help them reform, but will also shield them from harmful and negative influence. More so, it may also save their lives and protect them from jail-related monstrosities such as sex abuse. Such programs are in place; more should be structure.

Correctional programs, too, that work on helping prisoners address and improve particular aspects of behavior (such as stress and anger management or how to deal with peer pressure) would also be helpful. Other programs may work towards exposing prisoners to people from more positive environments (by, for instance, placing them in volunteer- or semi-volunteer positions) where they are shield form peer pressure and exposed to more salutary influence. Dwight, too, notes that the prison guards were just as violent and uncontrolled in their behavior as were the criminals.

Guards should be more carefully selected and their behavior regulated. Finally, greater supervision and vigilance should be enforced so that gang influence is regulated at all times. As Dwight observes: I grew up in this "system" that society created, and continues to stand by. From that juvenile system, I've evolved into a man unable to feel sorry for not having reservations when I curl my finger over a gun's trigger, a man who does not regret feeling not.