The Cradle-to-Prison Pipeline is a web of legal and social systems — rooted in structural racism, beginning before birth, and persisting through the teen years — that diverts youth, especially Black youth and other youth of color, toward juvenile and adult incarceration.

Northeastern University’s Cradle-to-Prison Pipeline Project (“C2P Project”) is a collaboration among the Center for Public Interest Advocacy and Collaboration (CPIAC) at the School of Law, College of Art, Media + Design (CAMD), Department of Sociology and Anthropology at the College of Social Science and Humanities (CSSH) and Boston Area Research Initiative (BARI). The project works to build a new holistic model of contributors to the entrenched problem of mass incarceration, in order to identify and validate policy interventions to dismantle the pipeline. Our society often focuses on narrow and reactive conceptions of safety and security, as opposed to a proactive and public health-oriented approach to these issues. The C2P Project is developing a Massachusetts model of interdisciplinary data collection and analysis and mapping of pipeline contributors, which can serve as a framework for other states. It also connects stakeholders to facilitate identification of collective interest and scalable solutions.

Fueled by geographical and educational segregation, the Cradle-to-Prison Pipeline implicates critical issues of race and class and, as the activist Marian Wright Edelman noted, “runs through economically depressed neighborhoods and failing schools; across vacant lots where playgrounds and health facilities should be and in and out of understaffed child welfare agencies.” Marian Wright-Edelman, Justice for America’s Children", Foreword to Juvenile Justice Policy: Advancing Policy, Research & Practice.

“The racial and ethnic disparities of the juvenile justice system can be seen in the family regulation system (aka “child welfare system”) which has contributed to the establishment of a juvenile version of the carceral state, a birth to prison pipeline.” Jill Lepore, Baby Doe: A History of Political Tragedy, The New Yorker.

Methodology

The C2P Project received pilot funding from Northeastern University in 2019 in recognition of the need for an interdisciplinary approach to the problem of mass incarceration. The project’s early work included an in-depth interdisciplinary literature review and interviews with practitioners, community members, and advocates to help develop a strong system comprehension. Informed by the transformative potential of community-informed research and effective research-practice partnerships, the university-based research team collaborates extensively with community-based practitioners, policy advocates, non-profit organizations and returned citizens in this work.

In 2024, the C2P Project received a grant renewal of $2.5 million over four years to continue the Project’s work beyond the pilot phase.

Digital visualizations

The C2P Project incorporates visualizations to illustrate the current and evolving Pipeline in novel ways. For example, systems maps track how seemingly independent systems are interconnected and form entryways into the pipeline. These systems maps show how children enter the pipeline, illustrating the cumulative and inter-connected impact of factors—including school discipline, special education, poverty, and early childhood services—that lead to disproportionate rates of incarceration among communities of color in Massachusetts.  

Narratives

The project also includes a qualitative, narrative interview component to bring real-world foundations to public understanding of the Pipeline. The qualitative interview project — executed in partnership with a local storytelling non-profit, Everyday Boston — produced video-recorded interviews with returned citizens who were involved with the criminal system as youth and wish to share their experiences with others. Everyday Boston’s Story Ambassadors, who themselves have first-hand experience of the justice system, were paired with law students to conduct the interviews. The inclusion of individuals’ narratives along with project data and systems maps illustrates more effectively the true impacts of these systems.

Original Research

The project’s early research revealed that crucial data about key factors in the Pipeline is missing, including data related to early childhood involvement with the Massachusetts Department of Children and Families (DCF) and foster care placement, disability services, school discipline, and court and police juvenile diversion programs. In addition to pursuing missing data from the agencies and organizations that oversee children, the project conducted a survey of incarcerated individuals in Massachusetts about their early life experiences to help address the gap in available information. The surveys also include qualitative open responses to identify potential avenues for additional research.

Project Team