Book excerpt: California spends $400,000,000 annually to incarcerate children as young as twelve years old. Every year, the price of a four year education at Stanford University buys each of these children horrifying physical, sexual, and psychological abuse behind the walls and fences of the California Youth Authority. At the age of nine, a family tragedy split up Dwight Abbott's family, and forced him into the hands of the California Youth Authority. This is the chilling chronicle of his life behind bars—a story of brutality and survival; a dark journey showing how the systematic abuse of incarcerated children creates a cycle of criminal behavior that usually ends with prison or death. – back cover.