Underground Knowledge — A discussion group discussion
This topic is about
Kids for Cash
SECRET PRISONS & THE PIC
>
The "Kids for Cash" scandal (privatized juvenile prisons = monetary incentives for harsher criminal sentencing!)
date
newest »
newest »
Kids For Cash: When Judges Took Bribes To Dish Out Harsh Sentences To Juvenile Offendershttps://allthatsinteresting.com/kids-...
In the mid-2000s, two judges began handing down unusually harsh sentences. Then, people realized why.
Corrupt ‘Kids for Cash’ judge ruined more than 2,000 lives https://nypost.com/2014/02/23/film-de...
Appeals court upholds vacating some convictions of 'kids for cash' judge https://www.witf.org/news/2019/04/app...
The "kids for cash" scandal centered on judicial kickbacks to two judges at the Luzerne County Court of Common Pleas in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania.[1] In 2008, judges Michael Conahan and Mark Ciavarella were accused of accepting money in return for imposing harsh adjudications on juveniles to increase occupancy at for-profit detention centers.[2]
Ciavarella disposed thousands of children to extended stays in youth centers for offenses as trivial as mocking an assistant principal on Myspace or trespassing in a vacant building.[3] After a judge rejected an initial plea agreement in 2009,[4][5] a federal grand jury returned a 48-count indictment.[6] In 2010, Conahan pleaded guilty to one count of racketeering conspiracy and was sentenced to 17.5 years in federal prison.[7] Ciavarella opted to go to trial the following year. He was convicted on 12 of 39 counts and sentenced to 28 years in federal prison.[8]
In the wake of the scandal, the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania overturned hundreds of adjudications of delinquency in Luzerne County.[9] The Juvenile Law Center filed a class action lawsuit against the judges and numerous other parties,[10] and the Pennsylvania state legislature created a commission to investigate juvenile justice problems in the county.[11]