In Theo Padnos’ book, he provides answers to the unanswered questions about the youth behind bars all over jail: What caused them to do this? Are they mentally unstable? Why did they do it? In his memoir, he writes about his own personal experiences in jail as an english literature teacher with the felons, in addition to addressing the dilemmas of a adolescent teenage delinquent behind bars. Many in which have no chance at going to college or even finishing high school. Carefully taking notes of his students, Padnos analyzes and profiles his students, their motives and their stories. The boys Padnos introduces his characters at the Woodstock county jail in Vermont throughout the book, elaborating on their stories from convenience store robbers …show more content…
Padnos tries to understand Stanard, other than a criminal, he wants to see him as the boy before his downward spiral that landed him in the jailhouse. This washed-up, outcasted teen finds himself in an unfathomable predicament, lost among the other young druggies, thieves, and murders; he turns to Padnos to redeem himself of a genuine good kid who meant no harm to his parents. And Duane Bedell, a farmer from Lake Champlain, sexually assaulted and raped several children; is another person Padnos spends time dwelling on and profiling. Bedell intrigues Padnos with their initial introduction in the jail library, he interests Padnos seeing that he did not belong in jail, that he was innocent; Bedell truly believed his crimes were not crimes at all, unlike all the other delinquents, this makes Padnos question question the moral values of his students. Then Will, a nineteen year-old lawless adrenaline junkie, attempted an armed robbery in a truck-stop off of I-91, tells of his ruff and tumble upbringing in the backcountry of Vermont and growing up in and out of trouble with the