Children and Youth in Crisis in America Rev. Dr. W. Wilson Goode, Sr. Director, Amachi

Children and Youth in Crisis in America

Rev. Dr. W. Wilson Goode, Sr.

Director, Amachi

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Our ChildrenEach day in America:• 4 children are killed by abuse or neglect• 5 children or teens commit suicide• 8 children or teens are killed by firearms• 33 children or teens die from accidents• 77 babies die before their first birthdays• 192 children are arrested for violent crimesChildren’s Defense Fund 2007

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Our Children• 383 children are arrested for drug abuse• 906 babies are born at low birth weight• 1,153 babies are born to teen mothers• 1,672 public school students are corporally

punished• 1,879 babies are born without health

insurance• 2,261 high school students drop outChildren’s Defense Fund 2007

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Our Children• 2,383 children are confirmed as abused or

neglected• 2,411 babies are born into poverty• 2,494 babies are born to mothers who are not

high school graduates• 4,017 babies are born to unmarried mothers• 4,302 children are arrested• 17,132 public school students are suspendedChildren’s Defense Fund 2007

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Our Children• A child is abused or neglected every 36

seconds, over 880,000 a year. This is more than the combined populations of Cleveland and Cincinnati. A child dies from abuse or neglect every six hours, about 1,460 a year.

• A child is born into poverty every 36 seconds. Our 13 million “other America” poor children far exceed the combined populations of Haiti and Liberia.

Children’s Defense Fund 2007

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Our Children• A baby is born without health insurance every 47

seconds; 90 percent of the nine million uninsured children live in working families and a majority in two parent families. Forty American states each have fewer than nine million people.

• A child or teen is killed by a firearm about every three hours – almost eight a day. Over 200 million guns saturate our nation’s communities and homes, leaving none of us safe.


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Our Children• Every minute a baby is born to a teen

mother. Children having children would fill up the city of Atlanta each year.

• Every two minutes a baby is born at a low birthweight. The U.S. ranks 24th among industrialized nations in infant mortality and 22nd in low birthweight babies.


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The test of the morality of a society is how it treats its childrenThe United States is failing that test each day. A

child is:• Neglected or abused every 35 seconds• Born into poverty ever 36 seconds• Born without health insurance every 46 seconds• Dies from gun violence almost every 3 hours

Children are the poorest age group in the country, and

millions of children suffer hunger, homelessness and

illiteracy in the richest nation on earth.


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Dropout Prevention

Twenty five years since the release of the landmark “A Nation at Risk” report, the state of our education and our young people remain very much at risk. The result, as revealed in new analysis, is that our nation is facing a dropout crisis with our largest cities paying the biggest price.

America’s Promise Alliance

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Dropout Prevention• More than one million American high school students drop out

every year

– That’s one student every 26 seconds– That’s nearly 7,000 young people every school day

• Nearly half of all African-American and Native-American students will not graduate with their class

• Less than 6 in 10 Hispanic students will graduate on time


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Dropout Prevention• The number one predictor of a child’s future success is whether he or

she graduates – we can’t afford to let nearly one-third of our kids fail

– Just conferring a diploma is not enough. Students must graduate with the knowledge and skills necessary for success in college, work and life.

• The U.S. has traditionally been a world leader in the educational arena, but many countries have now surpassed our graduation and literacy rates.

• According to the Department of Labor, 80 percent of the fastest-growing jobs require at least some post-secondary education. (Hecker, Monthly Labor Review, 2005).


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Dropout Prevention

When students drop out of high school, it affects everyone – businesses, government, communities and families.


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Dropout Prevention• We all pay the price for high school dropouts, who are more likely to be

incarcerated, more likely to rely on public programs and social services and more likely go without health insurance than students who graduate

– Dropouts from the Class of 2006-2007 will cost the nation more than $329 billion in lost wages, taxes and productivity over their lifetimes

– If the number of dropouts in a single year were cut in half, it’s estimated that the federal government would reap $45 billion in extra tax revenues and reduced costs in public health, crime and welfare payments.

– On average, the earned income for college graduates 25 and over in 2006 ($58,866) was almost 2.5 times that of high school dropouts ($24,721)


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The High School Dropout Crisis and Its Consequences

• There are nearly 2,000 high schools in the U.S. with low graduation rates, and in more than 20 cities, 75% or more of students attend public high schools where graduating is less than a 60% proposition

• The dropout problem is likely to increase substantially through 2020 unless significant improvements are made

www.silentepidemic.org

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• Dropouts are more likely than high school graduates to be unemployed, in poor health, living in poverty, on public assistance, single parents with children who drop out of high school, and nearly completely missing from the civic lives of their communities

• Dropouts earn $9,200 less per year than high school graduates and about $1 million less ovear a lifetime than college graduates


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• Dropouts were more than three times more likely than college graduates to be unemployed in 2004 and twice as likely as high school graduates to slip into poverty

• Dropouts are more than eight times as likely to be in jail or prison as a high school graduate


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The government would reap $45 billion in extra tax revenues and reduced costs of public health, of crime and justice, and in welfare payments if the number of high school dropouts among 20-year olds in the U.S. today, which includes more than 700,000 high school dropouts, were cut in half


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Child Poverty• Child poverty is costly. Every year that 13 million

children live in poverty costs the nation $500 billion in lost productivity.

• Child poverty can be eliminated for $55 billion a year and could be paid for by the tax cuts currently received by the top one percent of tax payers.

• The $100 billion a year we are spending on the Iraq war could lift every child in America from poverty twice over.

Faces of the Pipeline. Children’s Defense Fund. 2007

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Child Poverty

• There are more poor White (4.2 million) than Black (3.8 million) or Latino children (4.1 million), although Black and Latino children are disproportionately poor.

• Poverty afflicts rural, urban and suburban areas. U.S. child poverty rates exceed those of all other (and less) wealthy industrialized nations and are a national disgrace.


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Grandparents Raising Grandchildren Need Support

There are 2.5 million grandparents raising their grandchildren; 2.5 million children are growing up in grandparent headed households; 963,000 of them have no parent in the household.


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International Comparisons

0

500,000

1,000,000

1,500,000

2,000,000

2,500,000

TotalInmates

36EuropeanCountriesUnitedStates

• Total Inmates– United States

(2,245,189)– 36 European Countries

(1,842,115)

• Total Resident Populations– United States (299.4

million)– 36 European Countries

(802.4 million)

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America’s Prison Population

• More than 1 in 100 adults is now confined in an American jail or prison

• While 1 in 30 men between the ages of 20 and 34 is behind bars, for black males the ratio is one in nine

The Pew Center on the States; One in 100: Behind Bars in America 2008

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Male Incarceration

• Incarceration for white men ages 18 or older is 1 in 106

• Incarceration of all men ages 18 or older is 1 in 54

• Incarceration of Hispanic men ages 18 or older is 1 in 36

• Incarceration of Black men ages 18 or older is 1 in 15


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Female Incarceration

• Incarceration for white women ages 35-39 is 1 in 355• Incarceration of Hispanic women ages 35-39 is 1 in

297• Incarceration of all women ages 35-39 is 1 in 265• Incarceration of Black women ages 35-39 is 1 in 100


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Children of Prisoners• More than 2 million children have an incarcerated

parent, from 500,000 children in 1991. “Incarcerated Parents and Their Children”, Bureau of Justice Statistics Bulletin. (Washington, DC: U.S. Department of Justice, August 2000)

• On any give day 7.3 million children have a parent in prison or under state or federal supervision. Bureau of Justice Statistics (Washington, DC: U.S. Department of Justice, 2003)

• There are 10.7 million children affected by incarceration when including the number of parents in local jails, and probation and parole.

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Crowding Out Other Priorities• In 2007 correctional agencies consumed

6.8% of state general funds• 1 in every $15 in the states’ main pool of

discretionary money went to corrections• Corrections had second fastest growth rate in

FY 2006 (trailed transportation)• Corrections outpaced increases in spending

on education and Medicaid


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Competing with Early Childhood Education

• Corrections spending competes with funds for early childhood education

• Study found that severely disadvantaged youth that participated in pre-kindergarten dramatically reduced involvement in juvenile and adult crime, and increased high school graduation, employment earnings, with a total benefit-cost ration of 16 to 1.


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Incarceration rates among African Americans

• Although blacks account for only 12% of the U.S. population, 44% of all prisoners in the U.S. are black.

• In 2005, the incarceration rates for black males of all ages were 5 to 7 times greater than those for white males in the same age groups.

• The proportion of blacks in prison populations exceeds the proportion among state residents in every single state.

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War on drugs and its effect on African American Youth

• Black juveniles are about four times as likely as their White peers to be incarcerated.

• Black youths are 48 times more likely to be incarcerated than White youths for similar drug offenses.

Children’s Defense Fund: America’s Cradle to Prison Pipeline

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Racial Disparities in Incarceration

Some of the greatest racial disparities in rates of incarceration occur in states in which minorities are concentrated in urban areas, which tend to have both higher rates of crime and greater law enforcement activity.

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Racial profiling and other forms of unequal treatment of minorities by the criminal justice system have further contributed to the overrepresentation of minorities in the incarcerated population.

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• Chances of going to prison in lifetime for Black and Latino children born in 2001:– Black boy has a 1 in 3 chance– Black girl has a 1 in 17 chance– Latino boy has a 1 in 6 chance– Latino girl has a 1 in 45 chance


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Correlation between Incarceration and Education

• About 580,000 Black males are serving sentences in state or federal prison.

• Fewer than 40,000 Black males earn a bachelor’s degree each year.

• 1 in 3 Black men, 20-29 years old is under correctional supervision or control.


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Documents

Children and Youth in Crisis in America Rev. Dr. W. Wilson Goode, Sr. Director, Amachi