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Tennessee: Pinching the prison pipeline

By: Emily Bregel
(Contact)

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Lissa McLeod

A huge swath of children in Tennessee, and across the nation, begin life on a track to failure, an advocate for Tennessee’s children said Tuesday.

Lack of access to health care, disparate educational opportunities, pervasive poverty and an ineffective juvenile justice system are among the factors fueling a pipeline to prison for far too many children, said Lissa McLeod, executive director of the Children’s Defense Fund of Tennessee.

“This pipeline is not an act of God,” she said to an audience of local and state advocates for children. “We created it as people, (with) the priorities that we make in our country, and we can dismantle it. And, in fact, we have to.”

Ms. McLeod spoke at the Partnership for Families, Children and Adults on McCallie Avenue in honor of national Step Up for Kids Day. The event was one of nine held statewide Tuesday to recognize the importance of addressing children’s needs, said Kathy Daniels, regional coordinator for the Southeast regional office of the Tennessee Commission on Children and Youth, which organized the event.

The speakers focused on the need for local support services for young people and families, which could help disrupt the path to prison that so often begins with poverty, speakers said. They also encouraged Tennessee’s legislators to prioritize children’s needs when casting votes on legislation.

Nationally, 13.3 million children are living in poverty, and in Tennessee 22.7 percent of children are impoverished, Ms. McLeod said.

Minority children disproportionately are poor: One in three black children is living in poverty nationally, compared to one in four Latino children and one in 10 white children, she said, citing a 2007 Children’s Defense Fund report.

But devastating social conditions are not limited to urban centers and people of color, she said. Statistics also reveal rampant poverty and high rates of youth entering the juvenile justice system in counties that are rural, poor and majority white, she said.

For example, in Cocke County, Tenn., more than 12 percent of children were referred to juvenile court in 2006, she said. In that county, nearly 30 percent of children live in poverty, according to figures from the Tennessee Institute of Public Health.

“We’re talking about unfair and unequal circumstances here,” Ms. McLeod said. “It’s not that some kids get a wrong turn. ... They start out behind and they stay behind.”

Advocates at the event emphasized that the state’s legislators should support the national Education Begins at Home Act, which would fund at-home support services for parents and families. Marguerite Chambers, promotion manager for Parents Are First Teachers, a program of Hamilton County Social Services, noted that U.S. Rep. Zach Wamp, R-Tenn., has co-sponsored the bill.

According to a Children’s Defense Fund 2007 report, an investment of $55 billion — about half the amount spent annually on the war in Iraq — could wipe out childhood poverty, Ms. McLeod said.

But money alone can’t solve deeply entrenched social ills, and the devastating effects of poverty on families and physical well-being also must be addressed on a personal level, said Jeff Tassin of Chattanooga Endeavors. The group helps former prisoners gain employment and rebuild their lives.

“The lack of money has created the conditions, but throwing money at the conditions doesn’t rebuild them. It’s a process to rebuilding and ... it takes human power to do that. It takes money, too — don’t get me wrong. But it’s more difficult than that,” he said.

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