Our “News To Make You Furious” column this month brought you stories about For-Profit Prisons, and the centerpiece example of the problem was the “Kids For Cash” scandal in Pennsylvania. We gave you a couple links to follow, but as you can imagine the story could fill a book. In fact, it’s filled at least one so far. The blinding glare of this month’s Book Spotlight shines on…
“Kids For Cash” by William Ecenbarger
“Pulitzer-winning journalist Ecenbarger spares no detail in recounting how two rural Pennsylvania judges’ schemed to incarcerate thousands of kids in a privately owned juvenile detention center in exchange for millions in kickbacks. In famously corrupt Luzerne County, juvenile court judges Mark Ciavarella and Michael Conahan lobbied for the building of a new juvenile detention center. From 2003 to 2008, Ciavarella then funneled thousands of kids — including nonviolent and first-time offenders — into the new center. In return both he and Conahan were receiving millions of carefully laundered dollars. More troubling was the system’s abuse of the children (some as young as 11). Local newspaper reports led to state and federal investigations, and the judges were convicted of racketeering. Ecenbarger lays out the details of the case, emphasizing the very human element of the children who were the victims.
William Ecenbarger, a Pulitzer Prize and George Polk Award-winning investigative journalist, previously reported on the scandal extensively in the Philadelphia Inquirer. In this daring new book, he takes a hard look at some shocking truths: the trend toward sentencing offenders to for-profit prisons and detention centers; a politicized judiciary where judges campaign contributions often come from those whose profits and livelihoods depend on filling jails and prisons; and a juvenile justice system that is closed to public scrutiny, offers little or no oversight of judges, and allows children to be sentenced without benefit of legal counsel.
Through deeply compelling personal narratives tied together by an astonishing legal and political controversy that lead to charges of racketeering, fraud, tax violations, money laundering, extortion, and bribery, Ecenbarger explores the larger issues that made this situation possible. Kids for Cash will open our eyes to the haunting realities of the juvenile justice system in America.
About the Author
William Ecenbarger was part of a reporting team at the Philadelphia Inquirer that was awarded a Pulitzer Prize for their coverage of the Three Mile Island nuclear accident. Once an international correspondent for Readers Digest, he has been published in the Washington Post, Smithsonian Magazine, and other leading publications and magazines. A longtime resident of Lancaster, Pennsylvania, he currently lives in Castine, Maine.
