Last Chance In Texas

Last Chance in Texas, which was written by John Hubner, is definitely a must read for anyone involved in the criminal justice system, parents, students studying criminal justice, and anyone concerned with the future of the Juvenile Justice System in their community and in this country. If you are not familiar with the Juvenile Justice System, it is a System which is constantly being debated about on its purpose and effectiveness and this book gives us hope of a way of positively effecting juvenile’s lives to reduce criminal activity of young people. There are many sides to what people think may be the correct way of treating and punishing, and in his book, Hubner does a great job of explaining his opinion on the matter through his personal experience after visiting this ground breaking facility with a successful system in a small town in Texas that is treating troubled juveniles and finding the source of acting out and committing crimes. To balance effective punishment and rehabilitation and fairness is the main goal of dealing with Juveniles that are in the justice system and Hubner explains in his book how the State School handles this and effectively creates this balance that is so highly sought after. He follows the journey of several troubled youths as they go through the State School and details his observations and feelings about the program and its effectiveness.
To get started, the school based out of Giddings Texas, a state known for stern, harsh and swift punishments, is showing a kinder side which focuses on getting the troubled juveniles back on the right path and attempting to make them a functional member of society. As Hubner explains in his book, the professionalism of the staff and their skill, the philosophy o...

... middle of paper ...

...hows that most of the boys and girls showed success which gives hope because there is a program out there that is working. Hubner followed three capital offenders groups and of the seventeen boys and seven girls he followed, only two didn’t make it through the school and were sent to prison, the other fifteen were released, none have been re-arrested (Hubner, 2008).
Hubner excels at the task that readers can visualize the anguish and drama experienced in the COG treatment by the students, the professional staff, and by the author himself. Outside the COG meetings, the author kept in constant interaction with the psychologists and counselors and other staff who were leading the treatment sessions and worked with the kids. Hubner was in this way able to clarify questions which the reader might ask concerning backgrounds, relationships, and treatment of the students.