Children's Defense Fund
Leading the U.S. since 1973 to ensure a level playing field for all children
Each year thousands of children and youth are funneled down life paths too often leading to arrest, conviction, incarceration and even premature death. The risk falls disproportionately on minority and poor children and youth: For those born in 2001, a Black boy has a 1 in 3 chance, a Latino boy a 1 in 6 chance and a White boy a 1 in 17 chance of going to prison in his lifetime. Minority girls also are at high risk of incarceration.
A multitude of accumulated and convergent risks from birth through young adulthood, including poverty and its many stresses, underlie these stark figures, and contribute to America's Cradle to Prison Pipeline crisis. The most dangerous place for a child to grow up in America is at the intersection of race and poverty. Often limited access to health and mental health care, quality early childhood development programs and an appropriate education, coupled with too frequently overburdened and ineffective child welfare and juvenile justice systems across the United States, pull at-risk children and teens into this Pipeline.
This situation is exacerbated by America's deadly, historic romance with guns and violence. More than 100,000 children and teens have been killed by guns since 1979 alone. Reducing the excessive toll of violence on families and society will require emphasis on more nonviolent values and alternative methods of conflict resolution in all aspects of American life, as well as steps to prevent family violence, and measures to protect children from guns.
Our nation spends over $65 billion annually on corrections. The increasing privatization of our corrections system, including juvenile detention facilities, provides troubling incentives to maintain the status quo of our justice system.
We must reduce the racial disparities in our justice system and stop detaining children and teens in adult jails. Highest priority must be assigned to prevention and early intervention strategies to preclude detention and incarceration. This includes ensuring all children have access to quality early childhood development and education services and to the health and mental health care they need for healthy development. And we must reform our juvenile justice system so that those caught in it can be rerouted and sustained on successful life paths.
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