September 26, 2026

In 1826, Mary Shelley pointed out, in no uncertain terms, the counter-productive nature of youth prisons. She wanted her readers to understand that these institutions didn't improve the morals of young, developing minds, but instead increased their hatred of society tenfold.

Only recently have some states started to move away from this model after research backed up the words of Shelley, finding that this treatment of the young is not effective at keeping them out of trouble after they are released. Sadly, there are places were they still are employing these same strategies hoping, I guess, for a different outcome.