A catchall label for very different incidents has fueled calls for harsher punishment. A closer look points to solutions that help youth thrive and address safety without feeding fear.

“Violent ‘teen takeover’ chaos” reads a July 6 NBC News headline. The news segment features footage of fights and arrests in North Charleston, South Carolina, and Raleigh, North Carolina, over the holiday weekend. If you’re a regular consumer of news, this and similar footage from elsewhere in the nation may be familiar to you, as the supposed “tee ...

Even while incarcerated, the author describes how she continues to mother her son—and why systems that support connection matter.

Thirty-two days. That’s the amount of time I went without hearing my son's voice when he entered the Kansas foster care system and I entered the Kansas Department of Corrections. While holding all the fears and uncertainty surrounding my own life, I realized my son was experiencing life without me. I didn't know where my son was sleeping, who was c ...

Twenty-two people have died in county jails so far this year.

How are people dying?It typically takes months for Los Angeles County to publicly issue causes of death for people who have died in LA County jails. And even once autopsy reports are finalized, they don’t tell the whole story. When the coroner rules that a death is the result of “natural causes,” jail conditions can still be to blame. Researchers h ...