Kids for Cash

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.

Great documentary about the Kids for Cash scandal. Just shows us how corrupt everyone really is in this world.

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.

I concur with the Judge on this. Not guilty of cash for kids.

It appears from this documentary that there were no ongoing payments for keeping the facilities full. The Judge had a reputation of sending juveniles down (prior to the decision to close the original facility).

Guilty of bribery and corruption yes. Guilty of robbing the juveniles of their right to representation, but that was not on the charge sheet.

The judge does describe an incident in his youth where he said his father clobbered him for attempting to steal a car. Would you rather get punched in the mouth or be sent to lock-up? That is what I would like to ask that creep.

The problem lies with the system. Two million children arrested each year; 95% are for non violent crimes. This reflects the adult prison population in the USA which has the highest rate of incarceration in the world and more prisoners than the rest of the world combined.

Many of these prisons are privately owned slave plantations. The justice system is corrupted by prison for profit.

The parole system ensures a rapid recycling of ex cons back into the system and more profits for prison owners (like Bill Gates)

The USA is a corrupted violent society. It's collapse is imminent.

The facts at the end of the documentary are a sad indictment of the US and it's propensity to violence

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.