What Douglass understood—and what we still resist—is that prevention isn't merely cheaper than cure; it operates on an entirely different moral plane. A child shaped by kindness, education, and genuine regard grows into someone whose very bones are different from a man who must spend decades unlearning cruelty and abandonment. Notice he doesn't say "it's easier to prevent than to fix"; he says we build children, as though they're structures we're actively constructing rather than problems we're passively solving. A teacher who stays patient with a struggling ten-year-old, a parent who shows up consistently after divorce, a community that believes a wayward teenager is worth time—these acts aren't sentimental; they're the most practical investment any of us can make, far more consequential than any prison reform program or therapy couch ever could be.