Families, Infants and the Justice System.

This periodical issue focuses on infants and toddlers and the justice system. The main article is entitled: "Families, Infants and the Justice System," written by Robert Horowitz. It looks at the role of the justice system in family dissolution and creation, the use of courts to resolve disputes, the role of the justice system in family dysfunction, benefit programs and challenging their decisions, personal injury suits (torts), and the relationship of the infant/family professional to the justice system. A second article is "Bearing Witness for Babies: The Role of the Expert Witness" (Kyle D. Pruett). This article examines transformation of a clinician into a forensic agent, key characteristics of the expert infant clinician as a witness, the forensic investigation and report, and the testimony itself. A third article is "Kinship Care: Developing a Safe and Effective Framework for Protective Placement of Children with Relatives" by Marianne Takas. It discusses development of an appropriate legal, fiscal, and service framework for kinship care cases when a relative is selected as an appropriate placement resource. Next, "Babies in Prison", by Jean Harris, considers the prison nursery system today, Rene Spitz' insights concerning the best interests of the child, a parenting class, life in the prison nursery, changing patterns of care, and funding for prison nurseries. Other articles are: "A Toddler Experiences Joint Custody: Journal Observations" (Suzi Tortora); "Infants, Toddlers, and SSI: Changing the Rules, Reaching the Children" (Rhoda Schulzinger); "Head Start: The Next Generation" (Edward Zigler and Susan Muenchow). Other features include book notes, program notes, and a list of conferences. (DB)