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In an oddly placed story, the Arts and Entertainment section of the Star Tribune in Minnesota covered the cost of phone calls for inmates after the FCC decided that it would not support caps on cost for inmates to make calls. The article starts out talking about the Netflix series, Orange is the New Black, but this issue isn't fiction, it's impacting families all over the United States. In criminal justice reform this issue could easily get lost when larger issues like mental health are so...

I have just written the linked piece for the Aspen Journal of Ideas. It probes something that I think will be of deep interest to this audience, namely, how to enable change. To that end, the piece suggests that we have had a mistaken approach to date. We have focused on the positives of change. Instead, we need to focus on loss -- which is way harder and usually ignored. Ponder this new approach. Thoughts welcomed as always. ...

Two days before the 2016 presidential election, Donald Trump stepped out of his personal jet and into a hangar at the Minneapolis-St. Paul airport to promise a crowd of more than 9,000 supporters that, if elected, he would halt arrivals of Somali refugees. Minnesota has the largest Somali population in America—estimated to be around 46,000—as well as comparatively large populations of Ethiopians, Liberians, and Nigerians. "You've suffered enough in Minnesota," Trump told the audience,...

Health equity means everyone has a fair shot at living the healthiest life possible. Personal responsibility plays a key role in health, but the choices we make depend on the choices that are available to us. For example, you might know it’s important to eat healthy foods, but what if you live in a neighborhood without a good grocery store? Or the nearest grocery store is far away and you don’t have access to a car or public transportation? Or your family doesn’t make enough money to buy...

This past month America’s first mental health court celebrated its 20th anniversary. The behind the scenes story, which led to the creation of Broward’s Mental Health Court, is a case-study of the need to preserve and expand Medicaid from a criminal justice perspective; and what happens when people in need of mental health and primary care are left behind. Aaron Wynn, a young man living in South Florida, was preparing to leave for college. According to his family, Aaron loved the ocean, his...

Learning how to cultivate the realities of neuroplasticity” in very practical ways is at the heart of the ongoing dialogue between neuroscience and mindfulness. Here is a quick listing of the sessions, containing over seven hours of training: Session 1: The Buddha Meets Neurobiology Session 2: The Anatomy of Being Human Session 3: Extraordinary Mental Health Session 4: The Mystery of Identity Session 5: The Neurobiology of Mindfulness Session 6: The Game Is Love In addition to the...

Don Draper was a survivor of childhood trauma. But, when we first met Don, the protagonist of the acclaimed television series Mad Men, we met a man who had it all. He was at the pinnacle of his career, happily married to his gorgeous wife, Betty, father of two adorable children, and living in a big house in one of the fanciest suburbs of Westchester. His haughty, arrogant and aloof facade was easily mistaken for genuine confidence. We soon found out, however, that Don was a man with flaws.

A report from Georgetown Law’s Center on Poverty and Inequality reveals that adults view black girls—starting at age five—as less innocent and more adult-like than white girls of the same age. The study focuses on the “adultification” of black girls, shining a light on bias aimed at black female children. “What we found is that adults see black girls as less innocent and less in need of protection as white girls of the same age,” says Rebecca Epstein, lead author of the report and executive...

A new initiative is helping police officers sharpen and exercise the most powerful weapon at their disposal: their brains. As part of the brain power series on TODAY, special anchor Maria Shriver took a look at a groundbreaking program in the Dallas Police Department that was implemented to help officers in the wake of the shooting last summer in which a gunman killed five Dallas policemen during a protest. With police officers often facing extreme stress and trauma on a regular basis, the...

They are the nation's invisible homeless population, undercounted for years, hiding out in cars and abandoned buildings, in motels and on couches, often trading sex for a place to sleep. And now, for a complex variety of reasons, the number of youth — teens and young adults — living on the street appears to be growing. San Diego saw a 39 percent jump in homeless youth over the past year. In Atlanta, the number of homeless youth in 2016 was estimated to be nearly triple that of previous...

A 71-year-old man with advanced dementia is being wheeled into his residential care home by two paramedics after a scheduled MRI. They notice him smile as he feels the warmth of the morning sun on his usually forlorn face. They decide to stop and let him soak up the rays for a few more minutes, knowing this may be one of his last opportunities to do so. What is the impact of this compassionate act on this patient? What is the cost for the health-care providers? The story we are told is that...

New York Mayor Bill de Blasio recently said on a radio show that he would like to ban panhandling but wouldn’t try because the courts wouldn’t allow it . Many panhandlers “are not particularly in need and just are finding a way to get some easy money, and that does frustrate me,” he said. We—a sociologist and an economist based in New York City—have studied panhandling in downtown Manhattan for several years. We think that de Blasio and other leaders who want to root out panhandling can use...