Kids For Cash: Inside One of the Nation’s Most Shocking Juvenile Justice Scandals

[Jefferson23]

Democracy Now
February 5, 2014

Today a special on "kids for cash," the shocking story of how thousands of children in Pennsylvania were jailed by two corrupt judges who received $2.6 million in kickbacks from the builders and owners of private prison facilities. We hear from two of the youth: Charlie Balasavage was sent to juvenile detention after his parents unknowingly bought him a stolen scooter; Hillary Transue was detained for creating a MySpace page mocking her assistant high school principal. They were both 14 years old and were sentenced by the same judge, Judge Mark Ciavarella, who is now in jail himself — serving a 28-year sentence.

Balasavage and Transue are featured in the new documentary, "Kids for Cash," by filmmaker Robert May, who also joins us. In addition, we speak to two mothers: Sandy Fonzo, whose son Ed Kenzakoski committed suicide after being imprisoned for years by Judge Ciavarella, and Hillary’s mother, Laurene Transue. Putting their stories into context of the larger scandal is attorney Robert Schwartz, executive director of the Juvenile Law Center. The story is still developing: In October, the private juvenile-detention companies in the scandal settled a civil lawsuit for $2.5 million.

Transcript:

snip* AMY GOODMAN: That’s the trailer for Kids for Cash, a new documentary years in the making, features interviews with the children, with the parents and two judges at the heart of the scandal. The film is set to open in Philadelphia Wednesday at the Kimmel Center for the Performing Arts.

Well, on Monday, I spoke to a number of people featured in the film, including Charlie Balasavage and Hillary Transue. They were both 14 years old when they were sentenced to juvenile detention. I began the interview with Hillary Transue and her mother Laurene. Hillary was sent to juvenile detention after she created a MySpace page mocking her assistant high school principal. Her mother Laurene called the Juvenile Law Center in Philadelphia for help and sparked an investigation that exposed the kids-for-cash scandal. I asked Hillary how it all began.

in full: http://www.democracynow.org/2014/2/4/kids_for_cash_inside_one_of

[dixiegrrrrl]

1. Not just kids

Adult prison system works the same way.

Actually, cash for prisoners is a fairly old system, going all the way back to the Poor laws in England.

Sadly, it was esp. wide spread in the South, and now has been revised, in slightly different form, with the recreation of private prisons.

Many of the "old" laws and rules from the age of Dickens are being re-created in our country today, which is another way of saying
that the age of Roosevelt is being erased, at an increasing speed.