I undertook the writing of my new book, The reporting for this book began in 2007, when I was a teenager. Over the next year, I was admitted to three therapeutic treatment programs for adolescents in New York, Massachusetts, and Utah. In total, I was incarcerated for 288 days. These programs were known for their exploratory approach to therapy, which amounted to a brutal, forced redirection of wayward teenagers. They focused on breaking us down, but as one former client told me, “they were never as good at building us back up.” For me, as for many others, the programs were the start of a life spent circulating through countless institutions and lockups.