The Child Catcher

November 11, 2024
Bridge, back with his second memoir, after Hope’s Boy, shares his experience working as an attorney for wrongfully institutionalized boys and girls, while reflecting on his own time spent in a “holding facility for foster children” and the trauma of being separated from his mother, starting at age six. Bridge explores his time at Harvard—where he worked "to forget being a boy who had been put in another institution”—as well as his role in one of America's longest-running court cases, against the State of Alabama, when, in his first case as a lawyer, he confronted the state’s Eufaula Adolescent Center for its “long and well-known history of violence” and “history of covering up that violence.”
Bridge’s writing is eloquent and impassioned, powered by deep empathy for the victimized children and parents he represents and welcome clarity and precision about the legal complexities. He never shies away from sharing his own life story as a catalyst for his work defending children’s rights, and this conviction serves as a gripping narrative throughline. Poring over files, striving to speak with uncooperative staff members, and suffering through false motions for protective orders filed against him by the state, Bridge details his efforts to stop Eufaula’s “abuse being inflicted on children.” His account of the devastating effects of institutionalization is shocking—and will ring alarm bells for readers.
Through comprehensive details on the history of injustice and legal battles against mental facilities—specifically in Alabama—Bridge constructs a moving story of corruption, abuse, and a hard-hitting call for reform: “The deliberate destruction of childhood would not be blotted out by time,” he writes, “All of it would be condemned. What Alabama had done would be written into history.” Bridge’s most inspiring task is his determination to give silenced children a voice, an opportunity for freedom, and hope for justice. Equally heart-warming and heart-breaking, this is a full circle story of triumph that readers won't soon forget.
Takeaway: Powerful story of justice, for children trapped in a failing mental healthcare system
Comparable Titles: Dorothy Roberts's Torn Apart, Alisa Roth's Insane.
Production grades
Cover: A
Design and typography: A
Illustrations: N/A
Editing: A
Marketing copy: A

Starred review from December 1, 2024
A Harvard-educated lawyer reflects on a childhood spent in foster care in this nonfiction account of a landmark civil rights case. Bridge follows up his first memoir (2008'sHope's Boy) about his life with his mentally ill mother and his stint (lasting more than a decade) in Los Angeles County foster care with this wrenching yet ultimately triumphant look at the case that launched him into "a lifetime of defending children's rights." The Eufaula Adolescent Center, Alabama's largest mental institution for children, held 120 patients, nearly all from homes with "hardened backgrounds." Eufaula, Bridges writes, had a "well-known history of violence, including abuse by staff and other children. It also had a history of covering up that violence." With little experience in the courtroom (aside from a dispute involving his 24-year-old mother that resulted in the then 7-year-old Bridges being placed in foster care for more than 11 years), he joined a Washington, D.C., public-interest firm that was acting as lead counsel in a federal class action against Eufaula and every other Alabama psychiatric institution. This landmark case took more than 23 years to litigate, but it guaranteed patients with developmental disabilities who were involuntarily committed to state institutions the constitutional right to treatment that would afford them a realistic opportunity to return to society. Bridge's well-researched and annotated account includes harrowing stories from inside Eufaula; particularly wrenching is the case of a young boy named David Dolihite, who for every hour of therapy spent more than 33 hours in some form of isolation; a suicide attempt left him with permanent brain damage. Throughout the narrative, the author powerfully weaves in his years of experience in the system as a resident at MacLaren Hall, a "walled and caged compound [that] could pack in three hundred boys and girls from newborns to eighteen-year-olds." The inclusion of this personal history vividly underscores his motivation to leave a higher-paying job to find justice for these children. A fierce, maddening chronicle of advocacy on behalf of our most vulnerable citizens.

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