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A wide array of criminal charges send people to jail in northeastern Mississippi: the familiar DUI or robbery, or the less expected, such as public profanity or possession of beer in a dry county. But no matter the charge, odds are that if you land in lockup here, you will buy your freedom from Corbett Bonding. Brian Corbett has sewn up the bail bond trade in this largely rural corner of the nation’s poorest state, minting millions from people charged with minor offenses. Operating out of a...

Do not misbehave. Do not sit on the floor. Do not share your food. Do not use nicknames. Also, it is best not to cry. Doing so might hurt your case. Lights out by 9 p.m. and lights on at dawn, after which make your bed according to the step-by-step instructions posted on the wall. Wash and mop the bathroom, scrubbing the sinks and toilets. Then it is time to form a line for the walk to breakfast. “You had to get in line for everything,” recalled Leticia, a girl from Guatemala. [For more on...

Nearly four years have passed since a 28-year-old white police officer shot and killed Michael Brown on the streets of Ferguson , the working-class suburb near St. Louis. Civil unrest, a militarized police presence, and unrelenting national publicity have brought energy and organized introspection to long-festering policing and justice issues. Ferguson may have been ground zero, but evidence of a wide range of police and judicial abuses extended broadly to suburban municipalities surrounding...

Resilience is awesome, but also poses some risks and challenges. In 2012 a special edition of the Social Justice Studies academic research journal explored some of the risks. An intro and 5 academic research articles go very deeply into the topic of the "Dangers of Resilience Promotion." All the articles can be downloaded free at this link. https://journals.library.brocku.ca/index.php/SSJ/issue/view/70 I will attempt to summarize those 6 articles here in common language, cuz the articles are...

Experts worry that family separation could cause long-term developmental challenges for migrant children. Photo by Spencer Platt/Getty Images MIGRANT CHILDREN SEPARATED FROM THEIR PARENTS ARE AT A HIGH RISK FOR TOXIC STRESS. HERE ARE SOME WAYS TO SUPPORT THEM. It’s been a devastating summer for child migrants. Over 2,000 kids, some only toddlers, have been separated from their families at the border. With no easy way for these kids to be reunited with their families, experts worry that the...

Gaismen Campbell moved frequently as a young child. She started to come into her own in middle school, a few years after Katrina, and became her high school's salutatorian. A recent graduate of Spelman College, in Atlanta, she will start teaching eighth-grade English in New Orleans next month. Credit William Widmer for The New York Times The New Orleans turnaround shows the power of giving more freedom to teachers and principals — and then holding them accountable for their performance.

Melissa DePino didn't take the infamous April video that showed two black men being handcuffed and ejected from a Philadelphia Starbucks—but she agreed to post it. "I know these things happen," the writer says, "but I'd never actually witnessed it myself. And when I saw it I thought 'people need to see this.'" So she uploaded and pressed "send." It got millions of views, and people are still talking about it. [For more on this story by KAREN GRIGSBY BATES, go to...

People who use injection drugs in Vancouver, British Columbia, can do so, if they choose, under the watchful eyes of someone trained to help them if they overdose. This is the idea behind supervised injection sites, and it's an approach that over a dozen U.S. cities or states are considering to prevent drug overdose deaths and the spread of disease. Public health authorities in Vancouver, Canada, have run a supervised drug use center, Insite , since 2003. And as the death toll reaches record...

Over the months that I was pregnant, my overriding fear was that I would not be able to afford a child. How much do diapers cost? I asked a friend with a 1-year-old, as if the answer wasn’t online. She couldn’t answer; diapers were just one of countless minor recurring expenses. The cost of child care, however, she could tell me. If it didn’t cost an arm and a leg, it did seem that every month she cut off a finger and a toe and Venmo’d them to her nanny — a payment that despite its size was...

Black babies are two times more likely to die in their first year of life than white babies. This is a gap that has persisted in our country for decades. Around the country, people are trying in big ways and small to close it. The Castlemont neighborhood in East Oakland is known as a Best Babies Zone . The idea of this initiative is that improving life for everyone in the community will ultimately save babies. [For more on this story by Priska Neely, go to...

After 10 years of hiding under bushes, down dank alleys and bouncing in and out of crowded homeless shelters, Sabrina Jones had had enough. The street counselor who’d been bugging her since last year to give San Francisco’s Mission Street Navigation Center a try won out. Jones went in. More than a month later, she is free of heroin, getting therapy for depression, and is lined up for supportive housing. At 49, with her first two grandchildren recently born, Jones would like to be part of...

Have you heard of the National Nurse for Public Health? Can you imagine having the patience, determination and relentless nature to wait 13 years for a Bill to be heard in committee? Teri Mills MS, RN, CNE ® is the thought leader behind the idea of having a National Nurse. In 2005, Teri had this Op-Ed published in the New York Times: America's Nurse By TERI MILLS MAY 20, 2005 Teri's NYT Op-ed captured national attention by providing a compelling case for a nurse to lead a national health...