April 2016

Prisoners are brutalized by correctional officers with scandalous frequency. A recent abuse scandal in Los Angeles County ultimately sent former Sheriff Lee Baca to jail . In Texas , “the state prison system’s inspector general has referred nearly 400 cases of staff sex crimes against inmates to prosecutors. An analysis by The Marshall Project found that prosecutors refused to pursue almost half of those cases.” In Maricopa County, Arizona, Sheriff Joe Arpaio’s list of misdeeds is too long...

Over the past year, restrictive and discriminatory legislation has proliferated across North Carolina. At the end of March, the HB 2 bill swept aside the state’s laws protecting LGBT residents against discrimination; a bill signed in October by Governor Pat McCrory limited acceptable forms of identification and deregulated police investigations into a person’s immigration status. Still, messages of acceptance are appearing throughout the state. At the beginning of this year, some local...

A few weeks ago, I published an essay on Salon arguing that the precarious nature of my employment as an adjunct professor contributes to my success in the classroom. The response to the piece was sharp and swift: I was criticized in the site’s comments section for not checking my privilege. To date, there have been 61 comments; roughly 85 percent of them are negative. I had neglected, according to the hordes of commenters, to disclose that I am a part of a two-income household. This, they...

The Alaska Legislature scheduled adjournment date was Sunday, April 17, 2016, but it continues meeting. During the end of each session, bills that have been held for the end of session negotiations start to break loose. The daily calendar for both the House and Senate can be found here: http://w3.legis.state.ak.us/#tab3. After looking at the bills voted on for the past week, HCR 21 is not on any calendar. It still sits in the House Finance Committee, but could be released at any time since...

Physicians have known for years that racial minorities, especially African Americans, experience shorter lives because of a higher-than-average prevalence of maladies like kidney disease, heart disease, stroke, diabetes, and hypertension. My own family is a picture of poor health: my sister and I have experienced diagnoses of obesity, diabetes, multiple sclerosis, hypertension, breast cancer, kidney cancer, and stroke due to anesthesia. All of these happened before the age of 50. There are...

As white women between 25 and 55 die at spiking rates, a close look at one tragedy. They had been expecting a full processional with a limousine and a police escort, but the limousine never came and the police officer was called away to a suspected drug overdose at the last minute. That left 40 friends and relatives of Anna Marrie Jones stranded outside the funeral home, waiting for instruction from the mortician about what to do next. An uncle of Anna’s went to his truck and changed from...

Denise Johnson works two jobs, but neither of them offers health insurance to part-timers like her. She signed up for a marketplace plan this year, but for routine medical care Johnson still goes to the free clinic near her home in Charlottesville, Va. The problem is her plan's deductible of at least $1,000. She can't recall the precise figure, but it doesn't really matter. "It's absolutely high," said Johnson, 58. "Who can afford that?" She struggles to pay her $28 monthly premium. By...

Third-grader Victor Reza was watching CNN in the living room in Houston with his family when Donald Trump was announced as the winner of the Florida Republican primary. Victor teared up, his older sister, Maria, said in a telephone interview. "I don't want him to win," he announced. "If he wins, I'm never going to see any of you again." Victor, 10, is a U.S. citizen, but members of his immediate family are not. And, says 21-year-old Maria, "I'm pretty sure he's heard hateful rhetoric from...

The border was right here, says Juan Villamizar as he firmly plants his shovel into the soil. This was a border that no one saw, but everyone knew was there. Villamizar shows a scar on his hand—a reminder of a blow he received from a machete when he crossed this border without permission, entering the territory of a rival gang. He was lucky; countless others from his neighborhood didn’t come back from such excursions at all. Villamizar lives in La Sierra, a neighborhood in Comuna 8, high up...

The advertisements on public transportation don’t usually warrant a second glance, let alone a conversation. But on the New York subway last week, a new series of banners went up, asking people to start talking. “Depression doesn’t define me,” one reads. Another one: “Addiction can affect anyone and is treatable.” At the bottom of all of them is this line: “Let’s talk openly about mental health issues. Together we can heal.” These notices come not from a special-interest group or a medical...

Since 2013, the federal reserve board has conducted a survey to “monitor the financial and economic status of American consumers.” Most of the data in the latest survey, frankly, are less than earth-shattering: 49 percent of part-time workers would prefer to work more hours at their current wage; 29 percent of Americans expect to earn a higher income in the coming year; 43 percent of homeowners who have owned their home for at least a year believe its value has increased. But the answer to...

A mother leaves her son in the car while popping into a store at a strip mall. She is charged with contributing to the delinquency of a minor. A high school senior complains to her Facebook friends about a teacher and is suspended for “cyberbullying.” Students at Wellesley start a petition calling for the removal of a statue of a man in his underwear, claiming that the art piece caused them emotional trauma. So many residents of Santa Monica, California, claim to need emotional support...