Poverty

DAVID A. LOVE, McClatchy Tribune News

America is failing its most vulnerable children.

The United States does not provide a level playing field for all children and does not protect all young lives equally, says a recent report by the Children's Defense Fund. Marian Wright Edelman, a long-time children's advocate and activist, is founder and president of the fund.

The report states that poor children and children of color, in particular, "already are in the pipeline to prison before taking a single step or uttering a word." Many youth in juvenile detention facilities have never been on the track to college or a successful life. "They were not derailed from the right track; they never got on it," the organization says.

Poverty a factor