Behind Bars, All Alone TO THE EDITOR: Re “ Punished for Life ” (Aug. 4): In the wake of President Obama’s pointed comments on the overuse and dangerous effects of solitary confinement, elected officials and prison and jail...
I first entered individual therapy in the late 1980s, in Manhattan. Once a week for six years I strolled happily northward up Columbus Avenue from my apartment to my therapist’s office in the West 90s. Our sessions were a high point of my week....
You may know the acclaimed poet Elizabeth Alexander from her reading at President Obama's 2009 swearing-in ceremony. Alexander, who teaches at Yale, published a new book earlier this year — but it's not poetry. The Light of the...
I had my first pelvic exam at age 13 in a juvenile detention center. It was a frightening, humiliating experience. There was no mother, auntie or other supportive female present to guide me and explain the procedure. Afterwards, as my fellow...
Netflix’s announcement, on Tuesday, that it will start offering new moms and dads up to a year of paid leave has the tone of a parent whose leniency is strategic: “At Netflix, we work hard to foster a ‘freedom and...
A handful of Silicon Valley companies provide employees with generous (at least by American standards) leave policies upon the birth or adoption of a child . Google offers 18 weeks of paid maternity leave. Facebook gives four months....
In 2008, the city of Baltimore undertook a first-of-its-kind effort. First, it sought to transition its home visiting programs into using only evidence-based program models. Second, the city worked to build a unified system of services. And finally,...
In 2006, Alabama lawmakers passed a bill aimed at punishing parents who turned their kitchens and garages into do-it-yourself meth labs, exposing their children to toxic chemicals and noxious fumes. Support was bipartisan, the vote was...
Being trauma informed in treatment matters. In fact, Stephanie S. Covington, PhD, LCSW, Institute for Relational Development/Center for Gender and Justice, said it doesn’t even make sense to provide treatment without...
For Sammie Gallaway, being pregnant at 21 was terrifying. She was overjoyed about the life growing inside her but anxious that she wouldn't know what to do. "At first I was excited, and then I was worried. I thought, 'How will I do this? What...
This week, the Cut is considering what it means to be a woman who leads. It's a conversation that Michel Martin knows well. She herself has made a boss journey up the media ranks, first as a reporter at the Washington Post, then a...
I had my first pelvic exam at age 13 in a juvenile detention center. It was a frightening, humiliating experience. There was no mother, auntie or other supportive female present to guide me and explain the procedure. Afterwards, as my fellow inmates...
There has often been much focus on the need to reduce the risk of suicide in prisons. However, research into suicides by former inmates is "underinvestigated," according to a new study published in Sociology of Health and Illness....
The suicide of Sandra Bland in the Waller County Jail last month has focused much-needed attention on the mental health needs of those who end up incarcerated. Suicide is the second-leading cause of death in Texas jails, but the state requires...
School is still out for the summer, but at Eastern Senior High School in Washington, D.C., students are hard at work — outdoors. In a garden filled with flowers and beds bursting with vegetables and herbs, nearly a dozen teenagers are...