Wisconsin is part of a growing nationwide movement to adopt trauma-informed care, an approach that helps people identify and overcome negative childhood experiences. The approach is being used to improve mental health, provide social services and address a wide range of criminal justice problems.
Author Archives: Dee J. Hall / Wisconsin Watch
Dee J. Hall, a co-founder of Wisconsin Watch, joined the staff as managing editor in June 2015. She is responsible for daily news operations. She worked at the Wisconsin State Journal for 24 years as an editor and reporter focusing on projects and investigations.
A 1982 graduate of Indiana University’s journalism school, Hall served reporting internships at the weekly Lake County Star in Crown Point, Ind., The Gary (Ind.) Post-Tribune, The Louisville (Ky.) Times and The St. Petersburg (Fla.) Times. Prior to returning to her hometown of Madison in 1990, she was a reporter for eight years at The Arizona Republic newspaper in Phoenix, where she covered city government, schools and the environment. During her 35-year journalism career, Hall has won more than three dozen local, state and national awards for her work, including the 2001 State Journal investigation that uncovered a $4 million-a-year secret campaign machine operated by Wisconsin’s top legislative leaders.
Posted inHealth & Welfare, Justice & Safety, Precious Lives
A day in trauma-informed court: Parents work to regain custody of their kids
Milwaukee County Circuit Judge Mary Triggiano uses a trauma-informed approach when working with adult defendants and juvenile offenders.
Posted inHealth & Welfare, Precious Lives
What is your ACE score?
Studies show that adults with high ACE (adverse childhood experience) scores are more likely to suffer from poor mental and physical health, unemployment and substance abuse problems. Find out your ACE score with this questionnaire.
Posted inHealth & Welfare, Justice & Safety, Precious Lives
What role did trauma-informed care play in alleged juvenile prison abuse?
Critics charge that a trauma-informed care approach led to security breakdowns at Wisconsin’s two juvenile prisons; advocates say both facilities failed to fully implement the program
Posted inGovernment, Open records, Scott Walker's Wisconsin
Former cabinet members: Top Scott Walker aide ordered them to avoid state email, phones
Two former members of Gov. Scott Walker’s cabinet say the administration has had a policy of communicating official business through private channels. The allegations come as the Walker administration faces criticism for cutting public access to internal text messages and other so-called transitory state records.
Posted inOpinion
Your Right to Know: Cops wrong to shield driver data
Police in Wisconsin have begun withholding the names of drivers in police reports in response to a 2012 case involving the village of Palatine, Ill.
Posted inOpinion
Your Right to Know: Public’s business shouldn’t be ‘private’
Wisconsin’s Open Records Law asserts the public’s right to the “greatest possible information regarding the affairs of government and the official acts of those officers and employees who represent them.” But the law’s reach has been tested in recent years by electronic communications that are easily sent — and just as easily deleted — from officials’ email and cellphone accounts.
Posted inJustice & Safety
Nine people freed on strength of DNA testing in Wisconsin
In the last 10 years, about one-third of the post-conviction DNA testing in Wisconsin has resulted in a conviction being overturned.