Drawing from the logics approach to discourse analysis, and supplementing with the nodal framework, this paper seeks to contribute to the critical analysis of the punitive turn in the youth justice system. Taking the case of Chile, we suggest that current interventions framed around the signifier of 'responsibilisation' can sustain discourses of both punishment and right protection simultaneously, whilst preventing their radical contestation by providing a term that 'covers over' or conceals the contradictory elements of both.