Nell Bernstein
Nell Bernstein is an award-winning journalist and prize-winning author who has dedicated her career to dismantling the juvenile prison system and bringing our children home. Her newest book is IN OUR FUTURE, WE ARE FREE: The Dismantling of the Youth Prison. A veritable master class in social change, the book chronicles how a coalition of parents, activists, and prison officials brought a racist and destructive institution to its knees, and shows that large-scale transformation is possible.
Nell’s other books are BURNING DOWN THE HOUSE: The End of Juvenile Prison and ALL ALONE IN THE WORLD: Children of the Incarcerated. Burning Down the House won the Silver Gavel Award from the American Bar Association as well as the Media for Just Society Award. It was named one of the Best Big Ideas of 2014 by The Daily Beast, a Best Book of the year by Publishers Weekly and The Marshall Project, and “What to Read” by Glamour Magazine. All Alone in the World was selected as a pick of the week by Newsweek, a best book of the year by the San Francisco Chronicle, and a top ten book of the year by the Online Review of Books. Both books have been adopted into the curricula of universities across the country.
Nell has written for multiple national publications. She has appeared on Fresh Air, The Tavis Smiley Show, The Diane Rehm Show and MSNBC. She has been named a Soros Justice Fellow and received a White House Champion of Change award for her advocacy on behalf of children of incarcerated parents. She spent ten years as coordinator of the San Francisco Children of Incarcerated Parents Partnership, where she pioneered a Bill of Rights for Children of Incarcerated Parents that has been replicated nationally and internationally, and ten years as editor of the award-winning youth newspaper YO! (Youth Outlook) at Pacific News Service.
Nell speaks about the impact of incarceration on young people and families and alternatives to juvenile prison.
Praise for IN OUR FUTURE, WE ARE FREE
“A triumphant story of how young people, parents and their allies reclaimed a future for themselves and generations to come.” – Van Jones, CNN host and founder of DreamMachine.org
“In this fraught political time when it seems that all organized human rights movements are in constant peril, social justice journalist Nell Bernstein’s account of this panoramic grassroots victory over the brutal policies formerly embedded in the juvenile incarceration system reminds us what can still be possible despite the reactionary leanings of those who hold the reins of power.” – Richard Price, author of Clockers and screenwriter of The Wire
“Nell Bernstein is a national treasure whose passion and research enrich us all.” – Tananarive Due, Los Angeles Times Book Prize winner for The Reformatory
“Award-winning journalist Nell Bernstein chronicles the remarkable, family-led movement that has transformed youth incarceration in America—cutting the number of children in cages by 75 percent. Through powerful storytelling and deep reporting, Bernstein delivers a gripping, hopeful testament to the power of love, resistance, and redemption in an era hungry for change.” – Chesa Boudin, executive director of the Criminal Law & Justice Center at the University of California, Berkeley School of Law
Praise for BURNING DOWN THE HOUSE
“Burning Down the House by Nell Bernstein reveals a shocking truth: what adults do to children behind the walls of America’s juvenile prisons is criminal. If we want to change the United States’ senseless addiction to incarceration, the best possible place to start is transforming how our justice system treats our children. This book shows just how that can be done.” – Piper Kerman, author of Orange Is the New Black
“An unflinching look at America’s unbalanced juvenile justice system.” – Ebony
“In the haunting voices of children shut away in nightmarish facilities, their lives defined by abuse and brutality, Nell Bernstein brings to light the betrayal of the juvenile court’s promise of ‘rehabilitation.’ With her empathetic ear, sharp, impassioned prose, and deft use of compelling evidence, Nell Bernstein is the ideal messenger for the many thousands of children who will go to sleep tonight on a concrete bunk in an empty cell, convinced that there is no place for them in the world.” – Ayelet Waldman, editor of Inside This Place, Not of It
Praise for ALL ALONE IN THE WORLD
“In terms of elegance, breadth and persuasiveness, All Alone in the World deserves to be placed alongside other classics of the genre such as Jonathan Kozol’s “Savage Inequalities,” Alex Kotlowitz’s “There Are No Children Here” and Adrian Nicole LeBlanc’s “Random Family.” But to praise the book’s considerable literary or sociological merit seems beside the point. This book belongs not only on shelves but also in the hands of judges and lawmakers.” – San Francisco Chronicle
“An urgent invitation to care for all children as our own.” – Adrian Nicole LeBlanc, Author of Random Family
“Serious, moving, and well organized … this book could help galvanize a national will to tackle such problems.” – Library Journal, Starred Review
“Well researched and smoothly written. Bernstein’s book pumps up awareness of the problems [and] provides a checklist for what needs to be done.” – Publishers Weekly, Starred Review
Books, Films & Projects
Clips
Nell Bernstein makes the case to end juvenile incarceration.
Nell Bernstein on girls in the juvenile justice system.
News
Nell’s newest book, In Our Future We Are Free: The Dismantling of the Youth Prison, comes out on November 11. Pre-order here.