Since the establishment of the first youth prison, America’s carceral approach to youth has assumed that a slightly modified version of the adult correctional model of regulation and punishment will rehabilitate young people. Racialized, poor, disabled and “othered” children framed by intersectional markers and experiencing multiple interlocking oppressions are forced to move between institutions, from discipline in schools to incarceration in prisons – much like a revolving door. This study centers the voices of those “othered” children. I collected “stories to live by” — a narrative view of identity — from young adults in Kansas who have lived experience within the Juvenile Justice System (JJS).