Edelman: Obama deconstructing cradle-to-prison pipeline

Peter Edelman is the author of So Rich, So Poor: Why It's So Hard to End Poverty in America. An excerpt from his book appears in Dissent Magazine where he lays most of the blame for incarceration rates at the feet of uncaring red state legislators:

Check the boxes: father in and out of prison or whereabouts unknown or never known. Mother struggling to find steady work and often not succeeding. Drugs or alcohol in the parental picture somewhere. Violence in the home. Early childhood inattention or worse. Terrible schools. No caring adult other than the mother or grandmother in the boy’s life. Street culture that valorizes defiance and denigrates educational achievement. Police all too willing to arrest. 

There are 804,100 youth and young adults (ages eighteen to twenty-nine) in prison or jail, and about 92.4 percent of them are men. But there are three million or more youth and young adults who are not in school and are out of work for a long time, most of whom will not spend time in jail or prison. Ending poverty in America requires action on many fronts, but providing every young person the opportunity to be a full participant in our society could not be more important.

The Santa Fe New Mexican is reporting that healthy food and eating habits will be spotlighted by a summer of free eats:

The New Mexico Collaborative to End Hunger estimates that one in five children are unsure about where their next meal will come from -- if it comes at all. This summer, Santa Fe Public Schools, working with the New Mexico Children, Youth and Families Department, is helping out by offering free lunch and breakfast at about a dozen school sites from early June through late July. "The program is a way to feed kids for free so they can stay healthy throughout the summer," said Betsy Torres, the summer food-service coordinator for the district. "The district wants its kids healthy when they come back to school."

America is a food desert where capitalism decides who eats well enough to avoid desperation.

Help President Obama reverse America's red state failures.