Meandering through the World Wide Web, a headline – “A Child’s Questionable Arrest” caught my attention. Written by Marian Wright Edelman in 2007, the story of a 7-year-old black child unfolds. The young man was arrested (7 year old) for riding a dirt bike on the sidewalk. He (a 7 year old) was taken into custody, driven down to the police station, fingerprinted, and mug shots taken. Mind you, a 7 year old riding his dirt bike on the sidewalk.
What really caught my attention was the sentence “Disparities in how laws are enforced are critical elements in how the prison pipeline affects people in poor, minority communities.” In 2007, the Children’s Defense Fund, headed by Edelman, introduced the Cradle to Prison Pipeline Initiative. This pipeline funnels thousands of children and teens into activities “that lead to arrest, conviction, incarceration, and even death.”
A complex array of social, economic, and political elements create this prison pipeline. Factors leading the way include poverty and race. Other factors include poor working families struggling to survive, poor and depressed communities, little access to health and mental health care, poorly equipped schools, broken or unfair child welfare and juvenile justice systems unequal law enforcement, and a political ethos that prioritizes incarceration over child development.
Child poverty in America creates barriers to developing their full potential that most children cannot overcome. According to the 2009 Federal Poverty Guidelines, a family of 4 with an annual income less than $22,050 lives in poverty. Many families live on much less. As of August 2008, 13.3 million children live in poverty in the United States. One in 6 of all children in America live in poverty. Almost half, 5.8 million, live in extreme poverty. The number of children living in poverty has increased since 2000 by 1.7 million.
Seven out of 10 impoverished children live in working families; at least one family member works full or part –time for at least part of the year. Children of color are more likely to be poor than white children. Approximately 1 in 3 Black children and more than 1 in 4 Latino children are poor compared to 1 in 10 white children. Young children and children whose parents have not completed high school are more likely to be poor.
Poverty affects health. With little or no access to health care, children living in poverty often suffer from poor health. They often suffer from low food security where not everyone has enough food all of the time. Early childhood development may be affected as low-income families may not read to their children as much as higher income families. Language and math skills tend to be lower for low-income children. The family environment tends to be more stressful with more chance for conflict created by economic struggle. Children in low-income families are less likely to have a computer in the home, visit libraries and museums and more likely to watch more television. Low-income children have higher high school drop out rates. Lower income significantly impacts youth participation in criminal activity.
Hence the Cradle to Prison Pipeline.
Poverty is expensive. It creates loss of productivity, higher crime, and poorer health, which costs nearly 4 % of the GDP. Taxpayers ultimately pay more for social services, medical care, and the criminal justice system. The national labor force is affected when children grow up with less education needing more training to become productive workers.
A few weeks ago I introduced you to Kimonti Carter at the Black Prisoners Caucus Summit 2006. Kimonti reminds us that the criminal justice system punishes without offering alternatives. Kids learn about the consequence but don’t learn what they can do differently. Without changes to the system, these children who could be rehabilitated with appropriate resources will end up dangerous members of society.
2009, three years later, the United States’ depressed economy isn’t good news for impoverished children. The Cradle to Prison Pipeline still looms on the horizon.
In the immortal words of Bob Dylan:
Yes, ‘n’ how many years can some people exist
Before they’re allowed to be free?
Yes, ‘n’ how many times can a man turn his head,
Pretending he just doesn’t see?
How many times must a man look up
Before he can see the sky?
Yes, ‘n’ how many ears must one man have
Before he can hear people cry?
Yes, ‘n’ how many deaths will it take till he knows
That too many people have died?
No, the answer is not ‘blowing in the wind.’ We know the answer. The question is when will we plug the dike and stop the flow?
Sources:
A child’s questionable arrest
Marian Wright Edelman. Bay State Banner. Boston, Mass.: Apr 19, 2007. Vol. 42, Iss. 36; pg. 5, 1 pgs
Child Poverty in America
http://www.childrensdefense.org/child-research-data-publications/data/child-poverty-in-america.html
