Essay On Last Chance In Texas

Improved Essays
Growing up, some kids may have heard the phrases ‘This is your last chance! I mean it!’ from frustrated parents threatening to turn the car around because the siblings are fighting over a toy or to the teenagers for sneaking into the house just a little past curfew, principals from pranks. But in the book Last chance in Texas, by John Hubner, a book written about violent juvenile delinquents attempting to turn their life before it plummets and they head to the Adult Jail. In this case, those toddlers fighting over a toy is petty. Last Chance, twists your guts and emotions as they navigate a labyrinth of childhood trauma and admitting to the crimes of assault, theft and murder. It takes place in a small town in Texas at a school. In this book …show more content…
Their last shot at redemption, a chance at life, the last chance to be better than they were in the past. Instead of the standard handcuffs and cold cells, this book takes place in a school, called Giddings with cottages in lieu of cell blocks, in Texas. But, in order to get into Giddings, those younglings had to have committed crimes that were violent and atrocious (such as murder, rape, shooting other people and injuring them so severely.) It’s a place where with the help of therapists, therapy practices and each other can grow out of becoming a label and a cliché of the juvenile delinquent. Some of those delinquents, called students by peers, therapists and teachers, have to crack and crumble walls created by the past childhood and crimes to get to the future. Those students are the main characters and they have a story. In last chance in Texas, some of these characters had a rough childhood and often later turned to drugs, sex or crime to escape or feel some sort of control or pride or even what was considered ‘affection’. For boys it was getting high, or joining gangs or even doing drugs to make a connection. For the girls, most had been abused in the past ranging from physical to sexual; instead of healing they lashed out or taken to a life of crime to feel something. There are two main characters that hit those points. Ronnie and Elena, both of which had rocky

Related Documents

  • Improved Essays

    Baz Dreisinger had a vision: she wanted to travel around the world to expose the hidden places and forgotten people. Around 10.3 million people worldwide are in prisons, many convicted of nothing, waiting years to be tried. Many of them lack access to adequate legal assistance, and are confined in lockboxes of human emotion. Baz starts her novel by exposing some disturbing facts about the American criminal justice system. Most notable to me was the fact that it costs $88,000 per year to incarcerate a young person, which is more than 8 times the $10,653 to educate a child.…

    • 313 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    The Other Wes Moore by Wes Moore juxtaposes the lives of two men who grew up in similar environments but ended up taking diverging paths. The author Wes Moore perseveres through the hardships he faced and ends up a Rhodes Scholar, whereas the other Wes Moore is dealt a life sentence. The author poses the question, “Do you think we are all just products of our environments?” Due to their ostensibly similar upbringings, one may suggest that the antithetical outcomes of the two Wes Moores were caused by the individual choices made by them, but upon closer look it is evident that specific subsets of their environment impacted each of them for better or for worse.…

    • 1268 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Great Essays

    In this book, Hubner explores a juvenile correctional facility and provides the readers with insight on the school’s ultimate goal of resocializing the teenage delinquents held there. Hubner points to the reason as to why systems that include retributive justice do not work as such, “With a few exceptions, most institutions incarcerating juveniles do not rehabilitate. Indeed, they are not that much different from adult prisons. At best they are holding tank, at worst, they are finishing schools for career criminals” (xx). In institutions such as the ones Hubner described, the teens are essentially doing easy time because all they have to do is sit there and feel sorry for themselves and convince themselves they have been wronged, they are not being forced to think about what they, themselves did wrong.…

    • 1973 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Great Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Burns’ documentary highlights the emotional trauma and innocence these boys have lost as a consequence of being apart of a criminal and unjust system. Burn’s establishing shots of the youth correctional facility, where four of the five youths were taken once convicted of the ruthless felony, speculates the treacherous and harsh environment the young boys were forced to grow up in. The barbed wire surrounding the complex, represents…

    • 991 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Superior Essays

    Edward Humes’s book, No Matter How Loud I Shout, follows the life of seven teenage boys who are working their way through the juvenile justice system and also serving time for their crimes. No Matter How Loud I Shout provides a clear and vivid picture in readers mind about the juvenile system and how it operates. It shows readers how unjust some situations in court can be. Humes spent a year researching California’s juvenile justice system and his book was inspired by his experience.…

    • 1937 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Improved Essays

    A juvenile’s call to action can go on without much thought, while an adult understands the consequences of committing a crime. She also mentions, “the same malleability that makes them vulnerable to peer pressure also makes them promising candidates for rehabilitation… majority of young offenders grow out of crime” (8-9). Juveniles can grow out of their misbehavior. It is easier to make a juveniles grow into a law-obeying citizen as juveniles are still developing, they can intake the information and understand from the mistake they made as a child. Given the chance and opportunity to be released at a reasonable age, juveniles can change for the better.…

    • 1190 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    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.…

    • 713 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Inspirational, uplifting, and informational are three words I choose to describe the memoir: Becoming Ms. Burton wrote by Cari Lynn and Susan Burton. It’s not every day you get the chance to read a book that is able to enhance your own perspective on life, but Ms. Burton’s book did just that. The story, Ms. Burton’s story, give reader’s a major glimpse into the life of a woman suffering from her unearned disadvantages and the consequences that are tied to those disadvantages. The beginning of the story starts with Susan, Ms. Burton’s former self, and takes the reader’s on a journey through Susan’s life full of hardships from growing up in a crime-ridden neighborhood, to her introduction to crack cocaine. As the book moves forward, Susan’s story evolves into a bigger story that is connected to multiple social problems such as poverty, abuse, and racial discrimination in the justice system.…

    • 743 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Juice: Movie Analysis

    • 715 Words
    • 3 Pages

    For this juvenile delinquency film assignment, I viewed the movie Juice. I will attempt to highlight some of the delinquencies depicted in the movie in this sociology paper. Juice is about 4 teens growing up in Harlem, New York. They often skip school, and instead spend their days hanging out at their favorite spots while dabbling in petty crimes. They are constantly harassed by police and their rival, a Puerto Rican gang.…

    • 715 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    The legislature of Texas is the nation’s lawmaking frame. its primary feature is to enact laws to provide for the general well-being of its residents. it additionally establishes public coverage via the passage of bills and resolutions and proposes amendments to the country constitution. The Texas legislature is considered the most powerful branch of presidency because of its competitive use of the power of the purse to govern and direct the sports of nation government.…

    • 788 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Annexation Of Texas Essay

    • 917 Words
    • 4 Pages

    The annexation of Texas emerged as an important political issue because of the South’s (Democrats) insistence of expanding slavery and the North’s (Whigs) attempts to prevent the expansion of slavery. As soon as the Republic of Texas went into existence it unanimously voted to be annexed by the United States. The Texans also legalized slavery and to make it worse, also outlawed free blacks in the state. With Sam Houston as the Texans’ first president and Andrew Jackson in the White House, the Republic of Texas did not think it would have to wait too long for annexation by the United States.…

    • 917 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    The Cocaine Kids Analysis

    • 886 Words
    • 4 Pages

    The Cocaine Kids is the story of eight kids and their roles in the fast lane of the underground illegal drug ring. William states, “My intention is to throw light on a major and complex social problem, but without blaming the victims and without placing teenagers in stereotypical roles.” Williams argues the poverty and drug ring leads to a social problem for the young dealers, “grow to adulthood with little time to be young” For four years, Williams spent time with the “Kids”, earned their trust, and observed their weekly routines, some more in depth than others. Williams’ observations were recorded from 1982 to 1986 in Washington Heights (Spanish Harlem), in New York City, during the Reagan era. Williams, a well- known sociologist, with…

    • 886 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Great Essays

    Introduction The school-to prison pipeline is an epidemic slowly crippling minority youth all over the country. This unspoken system teaches these children that the only path for them is jail. Jail has become the narrative of the black life in America: Like Jim Crow (and slavery), mass incarceration operates as a tightly networked system of laws, policies, customs, and institutions that operate collectively to ensure the subordinate status of a group defined largely by race.…

    • 1570 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Great Essays
  • Great Essays

    Immigration In Texas Essay

    • 1332 Words
    • 6 Pages

    In the last decade or so, many important issues that were debated did not have much of an impact on local communities. However, one issue that is being debated today that will directly affect local communities is the policy on illegal immigration and how to control it. As we all know, immigrants looking for a new beginning founded this country and it has since been known as the country of second chances. The thought of the American Dream is what convinced so many people in centuries past to immigrate to America. This same reason is why today in America there are a large number of legal and illegal immigrants hoping to achieve this same dream.…

    • 1332 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Great Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Criminal Justice Frontline’s video, “Second Chance Kids,” takes its viewers through a controversial topic: life in prison for those who committed crimes as teens. Before the mid 2000s, teenagers who murdered someone get sentenced to life without parole. The arguments that teenagers grow up and change convinced courts to reconsider giving parole to those who were convicted for their crimes made as a teen. In one case, Anthony Rolon was 17 years old when he committed a crime. He was helping his father with selling drugs but a party next doors got really loud.…

    • 463 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Improved Essays