ABSTRACT
On Christmas morning, this past year, Helen Quan and I interviewed Peg Bortner for a public affairs radio program I co-host with Elizabeth Robinson called Viewpoints. We introduced “Dr. Bortner” (that’s what we called her) and told listeners of her longstanding involvement with and advocacy for imprisoned youth. We briefly described how Youth in Prison: We the People of Unit Four told the story of the experiences of some 200 young men who participated in an “alternative,” but failed, juvenile prison program that was created in response to a class action lawsuit for inhuman and illegal practices. 1 We then asked Dr. Bortner to tell our listeners what motivated the researching and writing of her book. She responded by saying that, although not everyone was aware of it, there was a war taking place against the disproportionately Black and Latino poor youth in the United States. She wrote this book, she said, as part of her antiwar activism.
