Claudia Rowe, "Wards of the State: The Long Shadow of American Foster Care" (Abrams Press, 2025)

Apr 29, 2025

Claudia Rowe, an award-winning journalist and member of the Seattle Times editorial board, discusses her impactful book, "Wards of the State." She dives into the stark realities of the American foster care system, sharing the harrowing story of Maryanne, a young woman imprisoned for murder due to systemic failures. Rowe highlights the urgent need for reform, addressing issues of race, class, and the foster care-to-prison pipeline. Her insights underline the desperate need for compassionate advocacy and targeted policies to support vulnerable youth.

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ANECDOTE

Marianne's Story Reveals Systemic Failure

Marianne, in foster care from age 10, was arrested for murder at 16 after running away and being trafficked.
The judge blamed the foster care system partly for her actions during the sentencing, highlighting systemic failures.

INSIGHT

Foster Care Channels to Incarceration

Foster care channels many youth into incarceration, not safety, contradicting public assumptions.
The foster care-to-prison pipeline is a systemic problem affecting thousands of children each year.

INSIGHT

Severed Attachment Harms Brain

Severed early attachments in foster care cause lasting brain chemistry changes.
This trauma impairs emotional resilience, attachment abilities, and daily adult interactions.

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Wards of the State: The Long Shadow of American Foster Care (Abrams Press, 2025) is compelling exploration of the broken American foster care system, told through the stories of six former foster youth. This powerful narrative nonfiction book delves into the systemic failures that lead many foster children into the criminal justice system, highlighting the urgent need for reform.

Award-winning journalist Claudia Rowe brings her extensive experience and investigative prowess to this eye-opening work. With a career spanning over 25 years, Rowe has written for publications such as The New York Times and Mother Jones, and her reporting has influenced policy changes in Washington State. Her previous book, The Spider and the Fly, was a gripping true-crime memoir that showcased her ability to blend personal narrative with broader social issues.

In Wards of the State, Rowe's storytelling is both vivid and unflinching, offering readers a deep understanding of the foster care-to-prison pipeline. Through interviews with psychologists, advocates, judges, and the former foster children themselves, Rowe paints a heartbreaking picture of the lives shaped by this broken system.

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, she'd 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 didn't take long for the police to catch up with her.

In court, the defense blamed neither traffickers, nor Maryanne, but Washington state itself--or rather, its foster care system, which parents thousands of children every year. The courts didn't listen to that argument, but award-winning journalist Claudia Rowe did.

Washington state isn't alone. Each year, hundreds of thousands of children grow up in America's $30 billion foster care system, only to leave and enter its prisons, where a quarter of all inmates are former foster youth.

Weaving Maryanne's story with those of five other foster kids across the country--including 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 House--Rowe paints a visceral survival narrative showing exactly where, when, and how the system channels children into locked cells.

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