Kids For Cash: Part I

            This terminology is known in both criminal and juvenile justice circles throughout the world for something that occurred in Luzerne County, Pa. in 2008. I am sad to report that Kids For Cash is a succinct description of the scheme of two trial court judges assigned to juvenile court who concocted it to receive kickbacks of cash for each child detained in a privately-owned detention center located nearby.

            Former Judges Mark A. Civarella, Jr. and Michael Conahan were convicted in federal court of taking $2.6 million, illegally, paid for their commitment of kids as young as 10 to the detention center. Every child committed requires that the county be billed for needed services to the tune of $150 or day or more. Ciavarella was sentenced to 28 years in federal prison and Conahan got 17 years.

            A juvenile detention center is comparable to an adult prison. Both involuntarily detain the defendant while the case is pending. Juvenile detention is three to five times more expensive for taxpayers than adult prisons.

            Kids For Cash is now a full-length documentary funded by the MacArthur Foundation. It premiered in early February 2014 in Philadelphia. 

            The ‘powers to be’ called for the Pennsylvania legislature to fund a complete study to learn what action could be taken to prompt reforms. Funding was granted and study members were appointed. Immediately after the release of the report of the Inter-branch Commission on Juvenile Justice on May 27^th, 2010, elected officials and many professional organizations called for implementation of every one of the commission’s recommendations. This has been done.

            I must state with pride that our juvenile court system in Berks County has never experienced any signs of anything even remotely related to any scandal. The procedural and substantive rights of our youth and their families are paramount, and I say with honor that they always will be. In fact, there really was no need for drastic legislation to correct the problem because throughout Pennsylvania the law is being followed and every child’s procedural due process rights are protected. The new regulations insure that those protections continue and that such a terrible event does not happen again. So how could it happen?

            Could it be that the average person is in support of a tough, no-nonsense approach to punishment that meant that every kid gets time in detention? This mirrors what exists now in criminal court, where more adults go to jail with much longer sentences. It can be tagged as zero-tolerance; perhaps it is mandatory minimum sentencing that equates to at least some time spent in jail.

            Judges are prohibited from having any policy for mandatory minimum sentencing where everybody in that class or category receives the same minimum sentence. That’s because judges must sentence on an individual basis considering the law, evidence and arguments in each specific case. A judge’s personal or court policy of a defendant getting pre-determined jail time, probation or any other sentence, as a policy, is in violation of due process rights and thus will be struck down on appeal.

Next week Part II of Kids For Cash, how did they get away with it for so long that Judges could receive $2.6 million in kickbacks for systematically putting kids in detention?