Prisoner

• Washington, D.C., April 01, 2024 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Prison Fellowship , the nation’s largest Christian nonprofit serving prisoners, former prisoners, and their families, released the following statement after President Joseph R. Biden, Jr. proclaimed April 2024 as Second Chance Month.
• “We are grateful that the White House has once again issued a presidential proclamation addressing the importance of second chances for formerly incarcerated individuals,” said Heather Rice-Minus , president and CEO of Prison Fellowship.
• “We support fair legislation that provides formerly incarcerated individuals who have served their sentences with the opportunity to rebuild their lives, strengthen family bonds, and contribute to society.”
  To view the 2024 Presidential Proclamation, click here .
• Prison Fellowship is the nation's largest outreach to prisoners, former prisoners, and their families, and a leading voice for criminal justice reform.

• The Australian government released its draft National Autism Strategy yesterday.
• Now focus shifts to whether the draft strategy – open for public feedback until the end of May – fulfils the hopes of the community.

Why a national autism strategy?

• Increased awareness has been a key factor behind the surge in the prevalence of autism diagnosis in Australia, estimated to be at least 3.2% of school-aged children.
• As reported in the draft strategy, the life expectancy of autistic Australians is on average more than 20 years shorter than non-autistic Australians.
• They are nine times more likely to die of suicide and they experience higher rates of physical and sexual abuse.

Read more:
New national autism guideline will finally give families a roadmap for therapy decisions

Who is involved?

• This is a great strength of the development process, which also involves working groups in key topic areas.
• But the fact the National Autism Strategy is being developed independent of state and territory governments constrains it.
• Read more:
  We don't need a hydrotherapy pool in every school, but we do need quality public education for all kids

What does the strategy include?

The draft strategy proposes 24 commitments across key areas such as:

• The draft strategy calls for public education campaigns about autistic Australians in the workplace, facilitating meaningful employment opportunities, and improving access to quality and timely supports that nurture autistic identity.
• It also calls for greater leadership and active involvement of autistic Australians in related policy and accountability mechanisms.

But there is room for improvement

• Improving this evidence base is a key priority to ensure the safety and effectiveness of supports for autistic individuals, but currently the strategy remains silent on this.
• Even where states and territories have primary jurisdiction, the federal government can still play a major role in leading change.
• Similarly, while education policy is set at the state and territory level, the federal government is a significant contributor to school funding.

Is the draft National Autism Strategy a game-changer?

• The draft National Autism Strategy includes an array of commitments that represent a critical step forward for the understanding, inclusion and empowerment of autistic Australians.
• However, its title of “National Autism Strategy” implies an ambition the terms of reference mean it could never meet.
• Alongside a top-down strategy, the goal of a coordinated approach could be better met by National Cabinet, which brings together the prime minister and the state premiers and territory chief ministers.

Andrew Whitehouse receives funding from the National Health and Medical Research Council, the Autism CRC, and the Angela Wright Bennett Foundation. Andrew was a member of the Social Inclusion Working Group that contributed to the National Autism Strategy.

• When I ask my menstrual health workshop participants – including clinicians – there’s usually a lot of shrugging and shaking of heads.
• If given multiple choice options, most think that periods either “clean the womb” or somehow “help prepare for pregnancy”.
• Yes, the blood part can stain clothing, but there is nothing pathological, contaminating, or dangerous about periods.

So, why do we have periods?

• Periods likely evolved as a kind of preemptive abortion, to protect women from unviable or dangerous pregnancies.
• As a result, we have low rates of conception, high rates of miscarriage, and extremely high rates of maternal mortality in comparison to other mammals.
• The menstrual cycle is critical for facilitation of the initial steps of this raison d’être of the female reproductive system.
• The menstrual cycle is critical for facilitation of the initial steps of this raison d’être of the female reproductive system.

What else don’t we know?

• Perhaps with the fact that the second phase of the cycle from ovulation to menstruation is a series of highly inflammatory processes.
• This was only very briefly mentioned in three out of 16 textbooks.
• We really ought to be taught from puberty how to reduce period pain and blood loss – this is not difficult science.

Why aren’t we taught this stuff?

• My research shows that the exclusive focus on the female sex hormones in menstrual education is informed by societal influences, such as the myth of the hysterical or hormonal female.
• This gender myth is still alive and well, although now we tend to blame the (female sex) hormones.

• Again, there was no scientific reason for this change in focus, although it reflected existing societal beliefs about the inherently irrational behaviour of women.
• Unfortunately, menstrual health literacy has not yet recovered from this shift in physiological models.

So what?

• It also becomes much easier to differentiate premenstrual changes from underlying health conditions, since the latter will not be substantially alleviated by anti-inflammatory interventions alone.
• Teaching the reductive hormonal model of the menstrual cycle unintentionally provides pseudo-scientific evidence for the damaging hormonal or hysterical female gender myth.

Sally King is the founder of Menstrual Matters- the world's first evidence-based info hub on menstrual health and rights www.menstrual-matters.com. Her doctoral research and current research fellowship were funded by the ESRC (Economic and Social Research Council).

• But after doing all the prison time, I have no 401K, no social security," said Bass, who became a Rutgers Business School senior in September.
• "If I get a college education, I give myself an opportunity to have a fighting chance of getting a job."
• Bass grew up in Linden, raised by a single mother whose care and discipline ensured that he graduated from high school.
• Across the university's three campuses – New Brunswick, Newark, and Camden – more than 137 formerly incarcerated students have earned bachelor's degrees.