Kids for Cash

Kids for Cash is a documentary that shows the horrific miss sentencing of several young American kids as a ploy for the judges receiving cash in hand by sending these kids to private detention centres. Throughout the documentary you can't help but feel for these kids who have had upwards of seven years of their life thrown away due to greed and selfishness of the authority figures. Though the documentary travels on both sides of the fence (between the judges fault and not the judges fault) the bulk of the film views the head judge as this overly conservative man who has only his own interests in hand.

One great documentary and never gets boring. Though the documentary will polarise views of the situation, anyone who is interested in this case will be glad they had watched this gem.

The documentary centers around the kick back money recieved by two judges, illegally, from a complex funding operation for building a juvenile prison. The juvenile court judge states he wanted to build a prison that was sanitary. So he utilized his own resources, from a beer company to a strip club, which he has business ties, and privately funds building the jail. The same jail he will be sentencing the juveniles to. But that's not even close to the real dilemma.

This all takes place post Columbine, so a ZERO tolerance is placed. Zero tolerance meaning they are going to weed out the trouble makers by any means necessary. Here are some examples of ZERO TOLERANCE:

A juvenile purchases a scooter for $250. The police finds out the scooter was originally stolen. He is sentenced to five years in prison.

A girl gets in a fight in school and is sentenced the same.

A juvenile gets in an argument with a parent at a bus stop. As the parent is cursing and shouting its the boy who gets sentenced to 4 years of prison.

All three of those kids sentenced without a lawyer. These are 15 year olds who will not experience growing up outside of prison walls.

The sentencing is beyond harsh. This is closer to paranoia. This is how you ruin a person's life, demoralize them and permanently damage their souls. The central focus is not the money. The documentary reveals trails of unjust sentencing and their ramifications show a complete lack of understanding of children. At 1 hr 18 min, there is an unforgettable scene when a parent confronts the judge about her sons suicide after his sentencing.

This documentary is powerful. It reveals a problem no one is talking about. If not for a group of advocates, the unjust sentencing will continue. The system will continue to silence these children as they are sentenced to grow up in the isolation of cold concrete walls of prisons.

Take a good look at this film and be prepared to be shocked and angry. Very shocked and very angry, that is, if you believe in decency and justice. It's an intimate look at two judges who took bribes to send children to jail, often for non-existent crimes or for petty, relatively insignificant things kids do because they're kids. Some of these children committed suicide, the rest all had their lives ruined. And the sick punchline? The crooked judges don't see what they did as wrong but rather just "administrative decisions". Sure, the judges went to jail but I'm sure they just see that as an "administrative decision" as well. Look at them closely. They're faces of the banality of evil. Much like the Nazis operating the death camps during WWII, they justify their actions as merely methods of the time. One of the criminals portrayed, the pompously righteous Judge Ciavarella pretended to be a "law and order" judge when in fact he was a greedy sociopath, not much different than the death camp dentists who ripped the gold teeth from Jews for joyful profit.

But whatever you do, don't see this as an isolated incident that has been taken care of. It still exists today. Most Americans are oblivious to the Prisons for Profit system, the same system that was giving huge kickbacks to these judges to incarcerate children for greed. The real sick thing about this documentary? The Prisons for Profit not only still exist, they're bigger than ever. And the terrible punchline to this story? You likely won't ever hear about judges being arrested for getting kickbacks for sentencing children to jail anymore. Now they can legally own stock and have other financial interests in this Prisons for Profit system that is flourishing. The same prisons they sentence "offenders" to serve long, profitable sentences. The fastest growth industry in the last 30 years in America. And most Americans are still oblivious to it. Your legal system has been sold, America and the blood, sweat, tears, and lives of your children and others who shouldn't be jailed will continue to line the pockets of evil people like these two judges who only saw children as a way to make money, caring not for their ruined - and ended - lives.

Watch this and get angry, very angry. And start talking about the evil that is destroying what used to be a somewhat fair legal system. That is, if you care at all about justice and decency. And your country. And your fellow men, women and children.

having just watched this doc i am left feeling that it could have been more complete.

As others have pointed out - no mention of the Prison/Detention Centre for profit angle, which caused the issue in the first place. No mention on what happened to the owner of the facility who paid them the 'finder's fee'.

I guess that would have probably dragged the running time too long, and the topic has been covered elsewhere already (most notably in my opinion in the excellent "The house i live in"). But still a couple of minutes to explain the root cause (apart from greed) would have helped.

Also - no real scientific explanation on the reason why kids should not be treated as adults to begin with. And no explanation why the USA did not sign the UN Charter?

Having said that - it tried to be a well balanced piece - but the most serious flaw to me was the failure to mention the yacht and luxury condos the 2 judges bought with the money. And how they channeled the funds through various accounts and companies so that it would be well hidden. I had to dig this bit of information up myself after viewing the doc. This would negate the small part of me that actually still had some sympathy for judge Ciavarella after his tearful passage at the end of the documentary.

He did not just 'pay some debts and provide for his kids'.

Plain greed.

This is a beautifully made film about the huge judicial scandal that became known as "kids for cash." Basically, two judges in Pennsylvania secretly received millions of dollars from the owners of a for-profit prison for juveniles in their jurisdiction, while at the same time pulling strings to give the prison a monopoly on juvenile detentions and (in the case of one of the judges) sentencing hundreds (literally, hundreds) of juveniles to years of incarceration in the same prison, without due process and often for truly minor misbehavior.

The documentary tells its story through interviews, news footage, and a limited number of title cards. There is no narrator, and the voice(s) of the interviewer(s) are not heard. The focus is on five of the hundreds of teenagers who were imprisoned in this scam: Charlie Balasavage, Justin Bodnar, Hillary Transue, Edward Kenzakoski, and Amanda Lorah. The interviews with the victims are heartbreaking. We also hear from the two judges (Ciavarella and Conahan), who allowed themselves to be interviewed for the film while the federal cases against them were pending. In some ways, this footage, while infuriating to watch, was the most interesting aspect of the film. Among the other interviewees are Terrie Morgan, the reporter who mainly covered the scandal for the Wilkes-Barre Times Leader (and who serves as a de facto narrator), and Marsha Levick and Robert Schwartz, two attorneys with the non-profit Juvenile Law Center who worked to have the cases affected by the scandal vacated.

The events covered here present dangerously rich material for a filmmaker. Should the story be about money? About power? About the juvenile justice system in general? The one weakness of the film is that it moves around among all of these themes without clearly digging into any of them. The opening and closing title sequences suggest that the third, broadest theme is the focus. But if so, why use the damage caused by two judges who were clearly corrupt as the vehicle?

Despite that flaw, the film deserves 8 stars for its excellent production values and, most of all, the powerful interview footage, which brings home the effects the scam has had on so many lives.