In Death Care in U.S. Prisons, Kendra Freas exposes the lack of adequate End-of-Life care for prisoners incarcerated in U.S. correctional facilities, and reviews hospice programs that allow prisoners to care for each other in relieving pain and anguish. “Successful prison hospice programs…work to carve a space for dying inmates to pass with dignity, community, comfort, and compassion. Rather than these programs reinforcing the direction of prison reform, they challenge and defy the reasoning behind the dehumanizing, abusive and punitive models of ‘criminal justice’.”
In The Future of Senior Care in the U.S., Izzy Gore asserts that “the state of senior care in the United States is miserable; it serves very few people as effectively as it should,” and “informal family caregivers suffer severe financial, emotional, and physical consequences for the work they do.” But the article poses alternatives to the current system in which caregivers are compensated for their labor, and can organize their own unions or cooperatives.
In The Adoption Industry and the Adoptee Rights Movement, Alex Lipe reviews the history of adoption in the U.S. and around the world, as reinforcing Western (white) cultural norms and middle-class values, and commodifying children in boarding homes, orphan trains, and baby farms. The article shows contemporary adoptee rights organizations that are trying to include the voices of adoptees in the adoption reform process.
In Profiting off Indigenous Children in South Dakota, Colleen Zickler notes that although in South Dakota, Native Americans make up only 15% of the state’s child population, they “make up more than 50% of those in foster care. Despite federal law requiring states to prioritize extended family and tribal community, 90% are placed with white families. Meanwhile, tribal foster homes remain strangely barren of children. Reports from Native families in the area are eerily reminiscent of historical accounts of boarding school abductions.”
In Trans Bodies as Commodities in the Medical World, Mo Dole focuses on “the commodification of transgender and gender non-conforming bodies,” through “expensive ways of transitioning to better fit their own gender. For trans folks who choose to have surgery, take hormones, or undergo other transition-related procedures, the body is rebuilt at an exorbitant price.” The article also discusses alternatives to this system, through partnering with trans-led clinics and law projects, travelling aborad, and seeking ways to fundraise for medical transitions.
In Criminalization of Abortion in El Salvador, Frieda Bequeaith exposes how El Salvador, one of seven countries to outlaw abortion, has created a police state that places women and their bodies under constant surveillance. The context of a recent civil war, severe poverty, and a powerful Catholic Church establishment created the conditions for the criminalization of abortion. As women resist the government policies, they are also divided into “innocent” and “guilty” categories.
In People Not Playthings: Abuse in America, Amanda Delouise studies how women have “been treated and seen in both society and the law as property of men,” resulting in the multiplicity of abuses in both sexual violence and domestic violence, which cost women not only their safety but often their economic livelihood. Since police action often hurts more than it helps, women in the U.S. and parts of Latin America are turning toward organizing to challenge assault, tell their stories, and stand together.
In Torture: Fueled by Greed, Katie Fong examines the torture programs of the George W. Bush administration in the post-9/11 “War on Terror,” and how it replaced more traditional and successful police interrogation methods. The “enhanced interrogation” methods gave rise to a new torture industry that profited enormously from its role, and used its connections in government to mask and rationalize its actions. Without holding these torturers accountable, they can act with impunity in the future.
In Intersectional Health and HIV/AIDS in the U.S., Jaxson Merk uses the intersectional model to review the history of HIV and AIDS in the United States, and how critical voices were left out of the decision-making process, with fatal consequences. The article points out how reactions to the HIV/AIDS crisis by the media, public, and Ronald Reagan Administration did not reflect medical priorities but homophobic, racist, and transphobic ideologies. This lack of support “left the LGBTQ community in charge of their own care, mourning, and organizing,” which to be successful had to incorporate the voices and power of those who had been marginalized, such as Black women and Trans women.