Q: What inspired you to write Wards of the State?

A: As a journalist, I’d written a bit about the child welfare system and a lot about youth crime. But not until I watched a foster girl being sentenced for murder did I begin to perceive a relationship between these two systems. She was 16, had been in and out of foster care since age 10, and her defense team was attempting to argue that this government system—foster care—shared culpability for her crime. That intrigued me.