In other words, Abbott, at the age of nine, was incarcerated through absolutely no fault of his own. As he says here in an explanation of why he wrote the book, most people in California prisons have been in and out of the system since they were minors. (Anticipating the argument that Abbott's innocence is the exception, I would say that neither are most minors who enter Youth Authority for the first time dangerous threats to society).
[....]
>Beginning in 1961, through the 46 years I have
>been incarcerated within the California state
>prison system, nearly every prisoner I have ever
>become acquainted with was first incarcerated
>while a minor child in the California Youth
>Authority (CYA) -- a powerfully dismal fact when
>you consider how the failed and dysfunctional
>youth penal system prepares children for the
>even more dysfunctional and failed adult prison
>system. The thousands with me here who were
>state-raised inside the CYA (newly called the
>Division of Juvenile Justice within the newly
>named Department of Corrections and
>Rehabilitation), are testament to the profound
>degree of that failure. They represent the
>consequences of the unchecked, progressively
>brutal administration of the state's juvenile
>institutions in place of the nourishing care and
>treatment that are the necessary prerequisites
>for "rehabilitation" to take place. Because our
>political "leaders" are in bed with the powerful
>guards' union (CCPOA) -- which hands out
>millions of dollars in campaign contributions to
>those who will do their bidding -- our
>incarcerated children continue to be beaten,
>sexually abused and confined in environments
>that are too often more psychologically
>destructive even than what adult prisoners must endure.
[.....]
http://news.newamericamedia.org/news/view_article.html?article_id=68d8401386ffce34e5682319380d621d
>"This is a searingly honest book -- read it if
>you have the courage. Dwight Edgar Abbott's
>story will reveal more about the self-fueling
>horrors of incarceration than would ten of the
>average criminology texts. For years this book
>has circulated as an almost cult underground
>document, a simple key to explaining the complex
>wretched mess that is the American criminal
>justice system." Christian Parenti, author of
>Lockdown America, The Soft Cage and The Freedom