America's Cradle to Prison Pipeline^SM Report

Release Date: October 10, 2007
File Size: 7 MB
File Format: pdf

This CDF report documents America's Cradle to Prison Pipeline, an urgent national crisis at the intersection of poverty and race that puts Black boys at a one in three lifetime risk of going to jail, and Latino boys at a one in six lifetime risk of the same fate. Tens of thousands of children and teens are sucked into the Pipeline each year.

The report includes:

• an overview of the major factors behind the Pipeline through stories and statistics and longer term policy goals
• Time Magazine Steve Liss's moving photographs that show the faces of children in the Pipeline
• Julia Cass and Connie Curry's case studies describing how the Pipeline affects children on the ground in Mississippi and Ohio at one point in time
• calls for the hard work and persistence needed to build a transforming movement to finish the work begun by the Civil Rights Movement and Dr. King's Poor People's Campaign to put the social and economic foundations beneath all children and families
• descriptions of some promising approaches to help keep children out of the Pipeline and research tables and state-by-state data of key child indicators

Entire Report (in English and Spanish)

High resolution (en espanol) (.pdf, 7 MB)
Low resolution (.pdf, 2 MB)

Summary Report

Summary report (.pdf, 242 KB)

Purchase the Report

Report in English
Report in Spanish

Report by Section

Foreword (en español) (165 KB, .pdf)

A Call to End Adult Hypocrisy, Neglect and Abandonment of Children and America's Cradle to Prison Pipeline

• Are We Part of the Problem or Solution?
• The Cradle to Prison Pipeline and the Dangerous Intersection of Poverty and Race
• Key Immediate Action Steps to Protect and Rescue Children from the Cradle to Prison Pipeline
• CDF's Next Steps
• How This Report Is Organized
• Dedication to Mrs. Mae Bertha Carter
• A Parent, Community and National Audit

Part I

Chapter 1 - An Overview of Key Factors Contributing to America's Cradle to Prison Pipeline® Crisis (en español) (120 KB, .pdf)

• Eric and Frankie: Children Born into the Pipeline
• Pervasive Poverty and Racial Disparities
• A Need for a Comprehensive Continuum of Support from Birth to Adulthood
• Case Study Findings in Ohio and Mississippi: A Guide for Action
• An Ounce of Prevention Is Most Cost-Effective in Long Run
• 2015 Millennium Development Goals: A Policy Agenda for
• Dismantling the Pipeline

Chapter 2 - Faces of Children at Risk of or in the Pipeline by Photographer Steve Liss 

High Resolution (en español) (5 MB, .pdf)
Low Resolution (1.5 MB, .pdf)

• Poverty
• Race
• Single Parents
• Grandparents Raising Grandchildren Need Support
• Unmet Health and Mental Health Needs
• Criminalizing Children at Younger Ages
• Homelessness
• Girls in the Pipeline
• Substance Abuse
• Juvenile Detention
• Child Gun Deaths
• Intergenerational Transmission of Violence
• Need for Community Supports, Role Models, Mentors and Positive Alternatives to the Streets

Part II (en español) (700 KB, .pdf)

Case Studies of Children in or at Risk of the Pipeline in Ohio and Mississippi by Julia Cass and Connie Curry

Revised Endnotes (60 KB, .pdf) 

Part III: Afterword  (en español) (160 KB, .pdf)

The Next Movement: Saving Our Children and Youth and Our Nation's Future and Soul

Part IV: Appendices (en español) (450 KB, .pdf)

• Examples of Promising Approaches to Help Children Avoid and Escape the Pipeline
• Selected Research on Risk Factors Contributing to the Cradle to Prison Pipeline
• Selected 50-State Data

Where to locate updated Cradle to Prison Pipeline data in the State of America's Children 2008® report: