REENTRY COURTS: PROVIDING A SECOND CHANCE FOR INCARCERATED MOTHERS AND THEIR CHILDREN

Each year many incarcerated mothers are released from prison and must endure the difficult process of prisoner reentry. The rate of recidivism remains significantly high among this transitioning population, which negatively affects many children. The traditional parole system has not adequately addressed the complexities of a mother‐prisoner's reentry and reunification with her child. This Note proposes that states should expand or adopt the use of problem solving parole courts, or “Reentry Courts” to support a mother and her child through the transition from prison to home. Reentry Courts provide a multi‐agency coordinated solution, which utilizes judicial authority for women seeking to transform their lives and reunify with their children upon their release from prison.     

‘The Cooling of Hearts’: Community Truth-Telling in Northern Uganda

Recent national and international debates on truth and reconciliation in Uganda have emphasized the importance of incorporating local-level mechanisms into a national transitional justice strategy. The Juba Peace Talks represented an opportunity to develop and articulate sufficient and just alternatives and complementary mechanisms to the international criminal model. The most commonly debated mechanism is the Acholi process known as mato oput (drinking the bitter root), a restorative justice approach to murder. Drawing on 2 months of research in nine internally displaced persons’ camps in 2007, we examine local justice practices in the region of northern Uganda to consider their potential, promise and pitfalls to realizing a successful truth-telling process. We find that although local mechanisms could help facilitate reconciliation in the region, truth-telling is but one part of a conciliatory process complicated by a national context of fear and the complexity of the victim–perpetrator identity at the community level. These locally informed insights help move forward the debate on such mechanisms in Uganda and add useful insights into community processes in the field of transitional justice more generally.     

Eosinophilic Coronary Periarteritis with Arterial Dissection: The Mast Cell Hypothesis

A subset of coronary arterial dissections is associated with eosinophilic coronary periarteritis (ECPA); however, the pathogenesis of the process remains unclear. Mast cells normally reside in coronary arterial adventitia and are known mediators of eosinophilic inflammatory conditions such as type I hypersensitivity reactions. We report two cases in which coronary arterial dissection with ECPA was detected at autopsy. Tryptase, CD68, CD4, CD8, and CD1a immunohistochemical staining was performed to better characterize inflammation. While eosinophils represented a prominent periadventitial inflammatory cell, there were slightly more lymphocytes: CD4/CD8 ratios were within expected reference ranges. There were moderate numbers of macrophages, and few neutrophils or dendritic cells. Numbers of mast cells in dissected versus nondissected sections were compared: adventitial mast cell densities were threefold higher in dissected portions and showed a trend toward increased degranulation. These findings suggest that mast cells may play a role in orchestrating inflammation in cases of ECPA.     

Who Benefits? The Interactional Determinants of Microfinance’s Varied Effects

Since its emergence as a development tool, scholars and practitioners have questioned microfinance’s short- and long-term impacts but have had insufficient empirical evidence to assess them. To address this gap, this paper draws on mixed method research to assess the effects of microfinance loan and educational services over time. It explores why, even within the same microfinance institution (MFI), some borrowers benefit from microfinance services more than others in the short-term, and examines how this translates into long-term impacts. The article identifies understudied sources of intra-group variation: the diversity and choices of borrowers and MFI employees interacting with each other and their broader contexts.     

Paying for Violence? Spousal Abuse and Son Preference in India

We find a puzzling correlation in the data on domestic violence and children’s outcomes in India. Using the 2005–2006 National Family and Health Survey, we see that girls in families experiencing spousal violence are less worse off than boys when only fathers report a son preference while the gender bias reverses when only mothers report having a son preference. To shed light on the puzzle in the data, we present a non-cooperative theoretical framework based in economic theories of domestic violence, whereby differing parental son preference and bargaining over investments in girl and boy children potentially explains the observed relationship.