About this ebook
The shocking true story of corrupt judges who made millions by sending children to a private juvenile detention facility: “A harrowing tale, lucidly told” (The New York Times Book Review).
In this sensational work of true crime that reads like a thriller, Pulitzer Prize–winning reporter William Ecenbarger exposes a long-running scandal that ruined thousands of young lives. In Luzerne County, Pennsylvania, Judges Mark Ciavarella and Michael Conahan were doing big business in juvenile court. From 2003 to 2008, they received millions of dollars in kickbacks from a private detention facility that needed a steady stream of inmates. Many of the children caught in this scheme were first-time offenders. Many received only cursory hearings without legal counsel. Some were as young as eleven years old.
When it was first released, Kids for Cash brought the story to national attention, where it has stayed ever since. As the Philadelphia Inquirer pointed out, this is the “worst stain on Pennsylvania, a state with more than its share of stains . . . Bill Ecenbarger offers a detail-packed, sickening account of the scandal and its impact. Anyone caring about courts, justice or children should read it.”
“Heartbreakingly shows justice gone bad.” —Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
“Shocking.” —Library Journal
In this sensational work of true crime that reads like a thriller, Pulitzer Prize–winning reporter William Ecenbarger exposes a long-running scandal that ruined thousands of young lives. In Luzerne County, Pennsylvania, Judges Mark Ciavarella and Michael Conahan were doing big business in juvenile court. From 2003 to 2008, they received millions of dollars in kickbacks from a private detention facility that needed a steady stream of inmates. Many of the children caught in this scheme were first-time offenders. Many received only cursory hearings without legal counsel. Some were as young as eleven years old.
When it was first released, Kids for Cash brought the story to national attention, where it has stayed ever since. As the Philadelphia Inquirer pointed out, this is the “worst stain on Pennsylvania, a state with more than its share of stains . . . Bill Ecenbarger offers a detail-packed, sickening account of the scandal and its impact. Anyone caring about courts, justice or children should read it.”
“Heartbreakingly shows justice gone bad.” —Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
“Shocking.” —Library Journal
Ratings and reviews
3.2
4 reviews
About the author
William Ecenbarger is a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist and author of Walkin' the Line: A Journey from Past to Present Along the Mason-Dixon, and Glory by the Wayside: The Old Churches of Hawaii. And he is the co-author of Catching Lightning in a Bottle: How Merrill Lynch Revolutionized the Financial World, and Making Ideas Matter: My Life as a Policy Entrepreneur.
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