Stoneleigh Fellow Leslie Acoca is featured by NPR.
GOLD: Reylene’s story is typical of girls in detention, and that presents a problem for people who run the juvenile justice system. They can’t tackle the complex problems – addiction, trauma, mental and physical illness – if they don’t know about them.
Bernalillo officials are trying a new approach. It was developed by Leslie Acoca, a psychologist and advocate who researches health care for girls in detention. Acoca says it’s important to do more thorough exams because this may be the only time girls on the fringes encounter the health care system.
LESLIE ACOCA: If we don’t ask these questions, who will, and at what point in their lives? And how sick do they have to get?
