Prison should be a place for punishment but also rehabilitation, especially when it comes to children and teens.  The only way we can hope to change the cycle of violence and imprisonment is to help these young people break the cycle themselves.  The California Youth Authority is in desperate need of reform.  It has become a place where teens are neglected, physically, mentally and sexually abused, live in abhorrent conditions and are deprived of their right to be able to make the changes in their lives they desperately need to make.   California needs to close these facilities and open smaller regionally based rehabilitation facilities to accommodate  teens and help them become members active members in our world.