Wards of the State

Told through the stories of six former foster youth, a jolting exploration of a broken system from an award-winning journalist By the time Maryanne was 16 years old, she had been arrested for murder. In and out of foster and adoptive homes since age 10, shed run away, been trafficked and assaulted, and finally pointed a gun at the latest man to take her into his car. She pulled the trigger and fled. But with no family to turn to and few reliable friends, it didnt take long for the police to catch up with her. In court, the defense blamed neither traffickers, nor Maryanne, but Washington state itselfor rather, its foster care system, which parents thousands of children every year. The courts didnt listen to that argument, but award-winning journalist Claudia Rowe did. Washington state isnt alone, of course. Each year, hundreds of thousands of children grow up in Americas $30 billion foster care system, only to leave and enter its prisons, where a quarter of all inmates are former foster youth. Weaving Maryannes story with those of five other foster kids across the countryincluding an 18-year-old sleeping on the New York City subways; a gangbanger-turned graduate student; and a foster child who is now a policy advisor to the White HouseRowe paints a visceral survival narrative showing exactly where, when, and how the system channels children into locked cells. Balanced with accounts from psychologists, advocates, judges, and foster parents, Wards of the State paves a road to reform by pulling back the curtain on our countrys longstanding foster careto- prison pipeline and the searing realities faced by kids who may be sitting in classrooms next to your own children.