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In late 2011, as Chelsea Manning awaited trial at the military corrections complex at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, she received a book from an anonymous sender called “Captive Genders,” an anthology of writings about the impact of the carceral system on queer and trans people. Two years later, on August 22, 2013—the day after she was found guilty of multiple charges related to her leaking of classified government documents, and sentenced to thirty-five years in...

Amid evidence that fewer than half of depressed adolescents get treatment for their emotional distress, a federal task force has recommended that physicians routinely screen children between 12 and 18 for depression and have systems in place either to diagnose, treat and monitor those who screen positive or to refer them to specialists who can. The new recommendations, issued Monday by the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force, bring depression screening for adolescents into line with recently...

This article was published in collaboration with Vice . I'm moving cells today. A guard issued the order at 6:30 a.m. this morning during rack-out, when the cell doors first open for the day. He read my name and prisoner number off a list. Soon I was piling all my books — my dictionary, my thesaurus, my Illustrated “Birds of North America” — and all my belongings into a cart outside my cell. I'm conscious of a not-unfamiliar physical sensation, like a piece of me is...

The number of opioid abuse cases in Massachusetts is growing. According to data from the Massachusetts Department of Public Health, between January and July of 2015, an estimated 869 people died from opioid overdoses. That marks a 24 percent increase from the last seven months of 2014. To combat this upward trend, a handful of insurance companies like Neighborhood Health Plan and CeltiCare have created programs to connect their members with social workers. The initiative is a preventative...

The Duchess of Cambridge says in a new video that she and Prince William want all children to get support during difficult times to help them overcome mental health challenges. The content of the video was revealed Sunday to mark the start of Children’s Mental Health Week. The former Kate Middleton says in the video that the royal couple wants to help schools prioritize the mental well-being of their students as well as emphasizing academic success. She says that would allow every...

President Obama used his final State of the Union address to ask Congress to build on the bipartisan passage of the Every Student Succeeds Act by “providing pre-K for all.” Unlike some of the speech’s more novel material (like Joe Biden leading the charge against cancer), this particular portion was just the latest mention of the importance of early childhood education by President Obama: In 2013, he released a “Preschool for All” plan that, if implemented,...

The staff at McGlone Elementary School has a mantra: Happy kids learn more. It’s why the extended-day school in far northeast Denver offers nearly two hours of specials like art and music per day; why the cheerful and affectionate principal keeps a few “golden tickets” clipped to her lanyard to give out as rewards; and why the classrooms aren’t the hushed, sit-up-straight, no-excuses type you might find elsewhere. On a recent afternoon, two fifth-grade boys in...

Last week, the Obama administration announced two new initiatives aimed at reducing childhood food insecurity in America. Both measures, which will simplify enrollment in the National School Lunch Program and provide supplemental food benefits during the summer months, should go beyond benefiting hungry kids—they could be a boon to the government's bottom line. The first initiative is a line item in the president's 2017 budget (still subject to Congressional approval) to...

The racial disparities in school-discipline rates are well-known, as are the damaging effects that harsh disciplinary policies can have on school climates. Less clear is whether—and if so, how —these tendencies contribute to the race-based achievement gap, a problem so entrenched and pervasive that discussing it is almost cliché. The achievement gap has narrowed since researchers started paying attention to it in the 1960s , but not by much. Myriad factors, many of them...

Harmonium staff pictured (left to right ) Front row: Brian Newcomer, Rosa Ana Lozada, Heidi Echeverria, and Janice Tangback Back row: Amy De Meules, Natalie Kessler, and Justin Campbell There’s almost a Zen-like feeling when you walk into the office of Rosa Ana Lozada, chief executive officer of Harmonium, Inc. (second from left in photo, above). The deep red accent wall, large corner windows, and small Japanese fountain send a message that a trauma-informed, resilience-building...

The people who are doing most of the pioneering work to integrate trauma-informed, resilience-building practices based on ACEs research (writ large) are doing so in cities and counties across the U.S. Now that more state agencies are learning about ACEs, many people in local communities are wondering what they can ask states for to help grow local efforts.  Karen Clemmer, the maternal child adolescent health coordinator for Sonoma County’s Department of Health Services, and I were...

This article was published in collaboration with Vice. My daughter was eight the last time she wrote, and in the envelope was a note from her mother, my ex. "I'm married again and two dads are too confusing for her right now. You can write me at this P.O. Box, but please don't write her anymore." I was four years into a 30-year bid, and was being told that I didn’t have a choice — that I must not write my daughter even one more time. I would just be… gone to her. No...