There is a lot of controversy around The California Prisoner Realignment Bill, a legislative response to judicial decisions concerning health care in state prison.

Unfortunately, rehabilitation (the adult word for "learning a lesson") is often not at the heart of criminal justice reform. In fact, the harshness of a punishment is frequently not determined by the possibility of recidivism, but rather by public opinion.

The rundown building is surrounded by barbed wire. Inside, kids sleep in narrow locked cells, no different from what you'd find in an adult jail. They are subjected to strip searches and attend an hour or two of "school" in a crowded room filled with a random selection of books.

Every year state and federal prisons release more than 650,000 people, a population equal to that of Seattle or Boston. Rather than providing the means for a successful transition, many states and the federal government hurl prisoners out into the world with little or no support.

I didn't expect my talk to a class of criminal justice majors at a local community college to be any different from the other workshops, presentations and classes I'd done.

The objective of building a massive prison system didn't include mechanisms that would encourage prisoners to work toward earning freedom, to redeem themselves, or to prepare for a return to society as law-abiding citizens.