The Children’s Defense Fund [1] released a report at the end of 2007 titled "America’s Cradle to Prison Pipeline [2]." The report looks at the connections between race, poverty, health and incarceration and demands that the United States stop channeling young people of color into its prisons. The report brings together a tremendous amount of data on children in the United States and their families. The report advocates for safe, healthy environments for all children.

Some of the facts revealed by the report include:

• On any given night, 200,000 children are homeless.
• African American youth are twice as likely as white youth to be incarcerated.
• An African American boy born in 2001 has a one in three risk of going to prison in his lifetime. A Latino boy born the same year has a one in six risk.
• Black babies are twice as likely as white babies to have their mothers die in childbirth.
• On average, states spend three times more on each person in prison than they do on each public school student.
  

There’s much more information in the report. You can read the full report or the report summary on the Children’s Defense Fund web site [3].

This news brief is based on the report America’s Cradle to Prison Pipeline [4]. If the link is broken, check the Children’s Defense Fund web site [5].