Weep In The Playtime Of Others Analysis

Weeping in the Playtime of Others
In reading Weeping in the Playtime of Others: America’s Incarcerated Children by Kenneth Wooden, I learned about the devastating, heartbreaking truths about how corrupt our juvenile legal system is. I knew there was probably some violence within the facilities, but I didn’t realize the extent of the torture and physical abuse the youth experienced within in the juvenile correctional facilities across America. I was shocked by the amount of youth that weren’t actually what we would consider criminals. These children were incarcerated because they were emotionally disturbed, mentally handicapped or because they ran away from home to escape a bad situation. It was heartbreaking to read how badly our system failed these children. The detail of how these children were punished was unbelievable. It is hard to believe that these scenarios took place within the last forty years. In many cases, the horrible and unthinkable treatment these juveniles received has led to the children acting out and ending up worse than when they arrived. It is good to know that reform has come to a point that mental illness is more understood, and these juveniles are able to get the help they need and not just be locked away and tortured because they are different. In the 1970’s, people thought that mental …show more content…
The fact that another human can abuse and mistreat another human being in this way is so sad, but to know that it has happened, and people have actually gotten away with it unpunished is disgusting. As seen through out this book, abuse and horrible treatment of others is not the best way to go about helping a person realize the mistakes they have made. Many of these individuals felt unloved or lived a very broken life. These children need to know their importance and be taught the right way to go about decision making not be abused and be taught to treat others this