Last Chance in Texas: The Redemption of Criminal Youth

The book now shifts its focus to the girls’ COG program. The author examines the differences between the boys’ and girls’ reactions to therapy. In many cases, the girls were subjected to chronic physical and sexual assault from a very young age that continued for years on end, while the boys’ experiences were often episodic or represented isolated incidents. As a result, the girls tend to detach from their emotions to a greater degree than the boys; such dissociation was a survival skill that allowed them to endure chronic abuse. Even after the abuse ends, the emotional numbness endures. This detachment makes the girls’ therapeutic treatment more complex and challenging.

Another major difference is in the group disagreements. Fights break out in both groups, but girls’ hostility is more difficult to control. During one fight that broke out during a therapy session, it took three therapists and four guards to subdue the two female combatants. The author asserts that girls’ aggressive trauma responses are more unpredictable and dangerous than boys’:

When a boy gets knocked down and stays down, it is as if a boxing referee has counted him out. The fight ends […] A girls’ fight is a no-holds-barred mêlée, with biting, eye scratching, and hair pulling.