In the midst of a national 1949 debate about improving the reform-school system, a radio station commissioned the author of The Thief's Journal to share his experience as a juvenile delinquent. Instead of writing the expected horrifying exposé, Jean Genet sent back a piece that celebrated prison life, denouncing any improvement in the condition of young prisoners as a threat to their criminal souls. This passionate defense of rebellion is accompanied here by Genet's essays on Jean Cocteau, Leonor Fini, and the art of Alberto Giacometti.