Jacqueline Caster

America incarcerates more youth than any other nation on Earth - at least among nations that keep such data. Within the U.S., California leads this practice where on any given day, roughly 15,000 youth reside behind bars and recidivism rates run high. That may soon change.

Last week,

Recently, a federal advisory committee announced its recommendation that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) change its outdated threshold for the diagnosis of "lead poisoning" in children. The standard has not been revisited in two decades, and it's about time.

Currently, the CDC will not classify an...

This week, Congress set into motion what will be the biggest improvement in childhood nutrition in decades.The House just passed the Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act, providing $4.5 billion over 10 years to improve the quality of food served in schools, remove junk food from school cafeterias and support healthy exercise...

"Why adult prison? It's not to help you better yourself, but to transform you in the most messed up ways because you hear and see more crime."

- "Frederick," arrested at age 16 and now serving a 30 year sentence in a Maryland prison

Empirical data from a...

We have all heard this familiar story. A young person living in a low-income, crime-ridden neighborhood gets caught up with an older crowd who talk him into assisting in a theft, assault, or worse. The juvenile might be an accomplice driving the car or serving as a lookout, or he...

A few weeks ago, I had the privilege of being part of a group invited to The White House to discuss the need for the Obama Administration to focus on juvenile justice reform issues. It was an encouraging meeting, and the officials present seemed interested in what we had to...

Sarah - there is a lot you could learn from the life of Ted Kennedy - that is, if you were someone who saw value in learning new things (more on that later):

#1: While Senator Kennedy was a man who may have been less than perfect, he never...

Children's advocates, as well as youth development and juvenile justice experts across the nation, have serious concerns with S. 132, the Gang Abatement and Prevention Act of 2009, authored by Senator Dianne Feinstein. S. 132 misses the mark on how to deal effectively with gangs and gang violence. While it...

We can go a long way toward helping California's budget crisis simply by reforming Los Angeles County's antiquated juvenile justice system.

California houses the nation's largest jail population, averaging 253,000 adult inmates per day in its state, county and local facilities combined. This year, operation of the State facilities...