While the term “kids for cash” might sound morally repellant, relax! It’s now a judicial concept.
Painful scene from a new documentary ‘Kids For Cash’. The woman in this photo lost her son, Ed Kenzakoski, who was so disturbed by his multiple unjust prison sentences that he took his own life. The mother screams in horror at Judge Ciavarella after the court sentences him to 28 years in prison for accepting a massive payout for incarcerating thousands of children.
It was a horror story come to life for the kids involved in the shocking Pennsylvania ‘Kids For Cash’ scandal which swept headlines in 2009. They were ripped away from their families, being deprived the majority of their high school and adolescent experience due to a corrupt and money-seeking Judge who showed no remorse for his brutal and unnecessary sentences. Hillary Transue, 14, created a fake, humorous Myspace page about her school’s vice principal. Justin Bodnar, 12, cursed at another student’s mother. Ed Kenzakoski, 17, did nothing at all.
All three kids were shown no lenience for their actions, and instead were hauled into a courtroom along with their parents and were convinced to wave the right to legal counsel, according to one of the mothers in the much talked-about documentary‘Kids For Cash,’ coming out this week. The ruthless judge, Mark A. Ciavarella, sentenced the children to a cockroach-infested jail without warning or chance of defense, a terrifying moment for the families involved. These kids became trapped in the juvenile justice system for years.
Judge Ciavarella, who sentenced around 3,000 children in a similar manner, was later sentenced himself to 28 years in prison for financial crimes related to his acceptance of $2.2 million as a ‘finder’s fee’ for the construction of a for-profit facility in which to house the so-called delinquents.
Naturally. And no doubt the war on drugs figures prominently…
Comments
3 responses to “Today’s judges are more creative than ever!”
Hopefully Judge Ciavarella will die in prison. What a despicable man.
I suggest readers follow the link to the article. There you will learn that the Land of the Free (cough) leads the world in arresting and incarcerating children. We are governed by tyrants, especially so in the area of criminal law and the administration of justice (cough).
I generally oppose the death penalty given how bad our ‘justice’ system is when it comes to finding the truth.
However, when one of the bad actors in that system commits crimes of this magnitude, I’m will to moderate my position.
This guy shouldn’t die in prison. He should die kicking on the end of a rope.
Imagine, if you will, what would happen to a private individual who kidnapped and abused 30 adolescents, let alone 100 times that amount. Imagine what his sentence would be if even one died in his ‘custody.’ And they say state actors don’t get preferential treatment…
ahem, that should read “I’m willing to moderate my position.”