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Seven documents juvenile justice agencies used to track disproportionate arrests of minority youth and compliance with other rules were among the two dozen federal guidance documents the Justice Department recently disavowed, sparking questions and concern across the field. Those documents were part of the batch of two dozen that Attorney General Jeff Sessions pulled back last week. While Obama administration guidelines in support of affirmative action in college admissions grabbed the...

MONDAY, July 9, 2018 (HealthDay News) -- Children whose parents spend time in prison are more likely to lead risky lifestyles as young adults, a new study suggests. The findings are important because more than 5 million American children have had a parent in jail or prison, according to the researchers. "The United States has the highest incarceration rates in the world. With the climbing number of parents, especially mothers, who are incarcerated, our study calls attention to the invisible...

This op-ed wisely recognizes that trauma and resulting mental illness is borne unevenly by different communities and that reducing stigma alone is not enough. "Suffering is compounded when the groups that are most in need of treatment for mental illness are the very groups who are less likely to receive it." ...

Women — but not men — who worked long hours were at increased risk of diabetes. Women who work long hours may be at increased risk for diabetes, a new study has found. Canadian researchers studied 7,065 workers, following their working hours and health over an average of 12 years. They recorded diabetes diagnoses beginning two years after the subjects enrolled in the study. They found that compared to women who worked between 35 and 40 hours a week, those who worked 45 hours or more had a 51...

Trauma in childhood echoes through generations, according to new research that could have implications for thousands of migrant children recently separated from parents at the U.S. border. The study, conducted by researchers at the University of California at Los Angeles and published today in Pediatrics, finds that traumatic events in childhood increase the risk of mental health and behavioral problems not just for that person but also for their children. “Early-life experiences --...

Most people who struggle with weight and food have probably suspected that trauma in the past plays a role. In this new video, Anna Runkle (the Crappy Childhood Fairy) interviews Mary Giuliani, who explains what we now know about childhood adversity, food and obesity. She shares how she lost 160 pounds (and has kept it off for 15 years), and teaches ways to calm emotions (and the brain) and face the triggers that drive overeating in the first place (READ MORE AND WATCH THE VIDEO HERE).

Brad Owen manages about three dozen chapels across the United States, all serving one mission: provide a place of worship and faith — for truck drivers. But three months ago, Owen, the vice president of operations for Truckstop Ministries Inc. , got a call from one of his chaplains in Amarillo, Texas; there were police everywhere and the chaplain was being questioned. “They were asking him what he was doing there and why he was there,” Owen tells NationSwell. “After he showed his credentials...

Because of recent legislation passed in February and March of this year, the federal government will be providing significant new funding to state and local governments in 2018 and future years through an array of programs serving low-income children and parents. These new funding streams, and the legislations’ increased focus on improving outcomes using evidence-based approaches, create a remarkable opportunity for path-breaking governors and local leaders to transform how government...

Emotional development in schools is integral to the way that students develop academically, and it also sets them up to be responsible, caring citizens once they reach adulthood. Not only that, but having the ability to empathize with others has been shown to reduce aggression in problem children and reduce incidences of bullying in school. It’s a notion that educator and author Mary Gordon is intimately familiar with. As the founder and executive director of Roots of Empathy , she’s devoted...

Hallelujah! It’s about time someone wrote a book that informs readers about the unadulterated truth of how we treat kids in America. It isn’t flattering, and worse, the future doesn’t look promising despite reform movements peppered across our nation. In his book “ The Evolution of the Juvenile Court: Race, Politics, and the Criminalizing of Juvenile Justice ,” Professor Barry C. Feld employs a historical approach coupled with a prolific blending of artistic and technical prose to convey...

When Donald Trump won the presidency, the flailing private prison industry immediately started to rebound . Then, a month after he took office as president, the Justice Department reversed the previous administration’s decision to phase out the use of private prisons. In just the four months after Election Day 2016, private prison stocks jumped up almost 100 percent . With the recent migrant crisis at the border, they have jumped again —making it clear that harsher immigration policy is a...

Like with fingerprints, no two people have the same brain anatomy, a study by researchers of the University of Zurich has shown. This uniqueness is the result of a combination of genetic factors and individual life experiences. The fingerprint is unique in every individual: As no two fingerprints are the same, they have become the go-to method of identity verification for police, immigration authorities and smartphone producers alike. But what about the central switchboard inside our heads?