Kids For Cash
William Gonzalez
Dr. Verrecchia
Juvenile Justice
March 23, 2015
Kids for Cash The Kids for Cash book depicts the scheme that took place between two judges, Mark A. Ciavarella and Michael T. Conahan, and PA Child Care, a privately owned juvenile detention facility in Pittston, Pennsylvania. This scheme became known as the kids-for-cash scheme in which Judge Ciavarella would convict young children, for mostly petty crimes that the children or attorney would not be able to defend them, and send them to PA Child Care for periods of time. In doing this both Judge Ciavarella and Conahan would get kickbacks from PA Child Care, they received millions in kickbacks. Robert J. Powell is the man that built the PA Child Care and provided the kickbacks to the two Judges. Powell paid the two Judges in many ways some of which were renting a condominium in Florida for a total of 1.8 million dollars and big checks to a fake company in the condo in the Judges Wives names. From 2003 to 2008 Judge Ciavarella sent these children and teens to the PA Child Care facility under the guise of his Zero Tolerance policy. Most of the children sent in front of Judge Ciavarella and sent to PA Child Care are plagued with many issues, among them depression, Anxiety, and separation disorders. The Children that come out of PA Child Care are not the same and often have many problems after being free of them system. Many children like Charlie are repeat criminals well into their adult years. Charlie was charged with a felony, possession of stolen property, and while going through the system resorted to using drugs to cope with his problems and later after the felony case was dealt with he went on to commit more crimes as an adult that landed him in jail till 2010. Some of the reoccurring problems in all of the children is that they lost their friends, child hood, and end up not doing as well in school. Among these children were honor roll or A students, students that played sports and had college
Dr. Verrecchia
Juvenile Justice
March 23, 2015
Kids for Cash The Kids for Cash book depicts the scheme that took place between two judges, Mark A. Ciavarella and Michael T. Conahan, and PA Child Care, a privately owned juvenile detention facility in Pittston, Pennsylvania. This scheme became known as the kids-for-cash scheme in which Judge Ciavarella would convict young children, for mostly petty crimes that the children or attorney would not be able to defend them, and send them to PA Child Care for periods of time. In doing this both Judge Ciavarella and Conahan would get kickbacks from PA Child Care, they received millions in kickbacks. Robert J. Powell is the man that built the PA Child Care and provided the kickbacks to the two Judges. Powell paid the two Judges in many ways some of which were renting a condominium in Florida for a total of 1.8 million dollars and big checks to a fake company in the condo in the Judges Wives names. From 2003 to 2008 Judge Ciavarella sent these children and teens to the PA Child Care facility under the guise of his Zero Tolerance policy. Most of the children sent in front of Judge Ciavarella and sent to PA Child Care are plagued with many issues, among them depression, Anxiety, and separation disorders. The Children that come out of PA Child Care are not the same and often have many problems after being free of them system. Many children like Charlie are repeat criminals well into their adult years. Charlie was charged with a felony, possession of stolen property, and while going through the system resorted to using drugs to cope with his problems and later after the felony case was dealt with he went on to commit more crimes as an adult that landed him in jail till 2010. Some of the reoccurring problems in all of the children is that they lost their friends, child hood, and end up not doing as well in school. Among these children were honor roll or A students, students that played sports and had college