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Editorial in the New Mexico Politics. Dr. George Davis, former director of the New Mexico Juvenile Justice System and CYFD talks about how children end up in the criminal system. "Within the first five years of life, the trajectory is set for the most important skills a person will ever possess — such fundamental traits as the capacity for attachment and empathy, the ability to self-regulate and to be calmed, and the tendency to seek primary reward from contact with other humans rather than...

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I recently watched, in a single sitting, the entire first season of “Girls Incarcerated: Young and Locked Up,” which premièred on Netflix, last month. It follows, in eight episodes, about fifteen inmates, referred to as “students,” at Madison Juvenile Correctional Facility, in Madison, Indiana, along with the teachers, correctional officers, and counsellors whose job it is to supervise and surveil the girls. The series largely forgoes the macabre violence that one finds on MSNBC’s...

On a spring day in 2014, Latisha Lacey, a single mother, moved into a freshly rehabbed two-bedroom home on Chicago’s West Side. It was affordable at $850 a month, so as time passed she tried to ignore the drug dealers in the alley, the landlords’ advances, and the prostitutes he invited into the basement. But her active boys disturbed his trysts, she said, and her continued rejection angered him. One day, without explanation, he refused her rent check. A week before Christmas 2015, he...

The fire that destroyed her dad’s third-floor apartment is the scariest thing that’s ever happened to 8-year-old Dakota Johnson. It was five-thirty in the morning. Someone on the first floor of the building had fallen asleep smoking. Dakota and her dad, Kenneth Johnson, woke up to the sound of the fire alarm. First it seemed like it might be just a small blaze, but when Johnson opened the door to the apartment, smoke and soot rushed in. Dakota was too scared to crawl out into the hallway, so...

My cursor is hovering over the “unfriend” button, but I haven’t clicked it. Today, my relationship-severing finger is poised to get rid of Matt. Matt is a friend with whom I spent a lot of time about six years ago. We were close in rehab, but I haven’t seen him since. I entered Greenbriar treatment center in Washington, Pennsylvania, just a few days after he’d arrived, and he showed me the ropes. For the next few weeks, we were virtually inseparable. Rehab can be a frightening place when you...

Editor's note: This story was updated 4/30. An earlier version of the story incorrectly named Delaware's governor Jay Carney. He is John Carney. For people addicted to opioids, the first time in detox isn’t necessarily the last. For Brian Taylor, the second time wasn’t the last, either — nor was the third, fourth or fifth. The sixth time, though, was different. It has been nearly 17 months since Taylor, 33, walked out of his last treatment at the Withdrawal Management Center in Harrington,...

In Johann Hari 's bestselling book, Chasing the Scream: The First and Last Days of the War on Drugs , the British author explored misconceptions of addiction. It is not the drugs themselves that lead to dependence, he argued. Rather, it is one's environment and the attempt to self-medicate and alleviate pain that are the true causes of addiction. Three years later, Hari's follow up, Lost Connections: Uncovering the Real Causes of Depression—and the Unexpected Solutions , digs beneath...

The Government Accountability Office did not mince words in the top line of a 1980 report to Congress on inequitable treatment of women in prison: “Women in correctional institutions are not provided comparable services, educational programs, or facilities as men prisoners.” Incarcerated women had been filing lawsuits—and they had been winning. Their conditions, they argued, violated their constitutional rights: Indifference to medical needs was cruel and unusual punishment, courts found .

Pastor Will Yancy, M.A. Ed., and Jackie Yancy, PhD , MSC/MFCT lead Triumph Educational Center in Oakland, California. Here they lead domestic violence abusers through the 52 week court mandated batterer intervention program. They also train others in the community to recognize and respond to domestic violence. Both Will and Jackie have a lot to say about how to motivate change, as well as effective strategies to create safe and thriving families.

"Meditation can lead people to some dark places, triggering trauma or leaving people feeling disoriented, according to Dr. Willoughby Britton, who has studied the adverse effects of contemplative practices for more than a decade. Now, she has teamed up with trauma specialist Dr. David Treleaven to help people work with these challenges. The First Do No Harm training program aims to make meditation safer, in part by recognizing its pitfalls."

GARY — Shenandoah Chefalo moved 50 times and went to 35 different schools by the age of 12. She was raised by a mom who was bipolar and addicted to cocaine and alcohol. At 13, Chefalo went into foster care. Somehow, she was able to escape the path of substance abuse, incarceration and unwanted pregnancies that many people with childhood trauma follow. So she's made it her mission to help others go in a similarly positive direction. [For more on this story by Giles Bruce, go to...