juvenile delinquents

Teenage Reese, serving time at a juvenile detention facility, gets a lesson in making it through hard times from an unlikely friend with a harrowing past.

When troubled sixteen-year-old Jimmer "JD" Dobbs returns from a mysterious summer "upstate" he finds that his mother has adopted an abused Rottweiler that JD names Johnny Rotten, but soon his tenuous relationship with the dog is threatened.

Gecko, Arjay, and Terence, all in trouble with the law, must find a way to keep their halfway house open in order to stay out of juvenile detention.

Fifteen-year-old Cassie Streng is determined to expose her stepfather after learning that he is giving a dangerous experimental drug to his teenaged psychiatric patients, but he sends her to a boot camp for troubled teens in Mexico in order to keep her quiet.

Barbara sets out to rescue her friend T.J., who has been sent to a youth center, and soon realizes things aren't as clear as they seem to be.

Luis Rodriguez uses his own experiences as a peacemaker with gangs in Los Angeles, Chicago, and many other cities to explore how people can create nonviolent opportunities to redirect children toward productive, satisfying lives and away from the dangers of gangs, drugs, and violence.

Discusses such aspects of juvenile delinquency as gangs, drug abuse, running away, and crime. Provides resources for additional information.

Interviews with twenty youths between the ages of fourteen and seventeen confined for various reasons in a juvenile hall.

Young people whose lives have been impacted by violence and crime, either as perpetrators or as victims, tell their stories. Also includes comments from concerned adults who work with these teens.

Gecko, Arjay, and Terence, all in trouble with the law, must find a way to keep their halfway house open in order to stay out of juvenile detention.