In wake of the Columbine High School massacre that happened in April 1999, the American government enforced a zero tolerance policy for juvenile crime on the youth population. Between 2000 and 2007, Luzerne County judges Mark Ciavarella and Michael Conahan of a small Pennsylvania town, locked up close to 3,000 children at private juvenile facilities. Harsh adjudications were imposed on these kids brought before the courts for what you’d consider – hardly criminal – more delinquent teenage behavior. When the scandal broke in February 2009 it made international news. Later that year the judges were found guilty, accused of accepting millions in bribe money from the owners of the youth detention centers in return for boosting numbers in their facilities. Filmmakers, Robert May and Lauren Timmons uncover one of the most shocking scandals of the decade in Kids for Cash and a year on from the release of the film, question why not much more has been said about it.
In wake of the Columbine High School massacre that happened in April 1999, the American government enforced a zero tolerance policy for juvenile crime on the youth population. Between 2000 and 2007, Luzerne County judges Mark Ciavarella and Michael Conahan of a small Pennsylvania town, locked up close to 3,000 children at private juvenile facilities. Harsh adjudications were imposed on these kids brought before the courts for what you’d consider – hardly criminal – more delinquent teenage behavior. When the scandal broke in February 2009 it made international news. Later that year the judges were found guilty, accused of accepting millions in bribe money from the owners of the youth detention centers in return for boosting numbers in their facilities. Filmmakers, Robert May and Lauren Timmons uncover one of the most shocking scandals of the decade in Kids for Cash and a year on from the release of the film, question why not much more has been said about it.
Like any real-life crime story, the filmmakers remain true to the genre in providing ample evidence and statistics to back their case. The findings they present in this film will shock you. All 193 United Nation member countries have ratified the Convention on the Rights of the Child - except Somalia and the US. Two million children are arrested every year in the United States - 95% of them are for non-violent crimes. In the US, juvenile court proceedings are closed to the public – to ‘protect the child’. Each year the US spends $10,500 on each child for their education and $88,000 on each child incarcerated. How insane are these stats and how do they even exist? In a recent interview with the filmmakers they disclose that their research affirms that the kinds of things that happened in Luzerne County are happening all around the country. So, what is this really all about?
When I researched for this story I came across a new report from In The Public Interest that revealed private prison companies are making deals with American states that contain clauses guaranteeing high prison occupancy rates. The report documents the contracts exchanged between private prison companies and state and local governments that either guarantee prison occupancy rates or make taxpayers pay for empty beds. In a letter to 48 state governors in 2012, the largest for-profit prison company in the US, Corrections Corporation of America (CCA) offered to buy up and operate public state prisons – the deal, that states would have to sign a 20-year contract guaranteeing a 90% occupancy rate at all times. Arizona, Louisiana, Oklahoma and Virginia have locked into these long-term contracts. One case: current in Ohio, a deal to privately operate the Lake Erie Correctional Institution has meant cutting corners on safety – there’s overcrowding, reportedly areas without secure doors and an increase in crime both inside the prison and the outside community.
The Lucerne County scandal was said to have exposed what some refer to as a secretive American Institution. And, here you have it – concrete evidence that a prison privatisation and corporatisation exists. May and Timmons put the reason why their film hasn’t received so well down to fear. They comment: It takes society to allow these things to happen. It takes a society to be complicit and complacent in zero tolerance policies and to celebrate Ciavarella's zero tolerance policies just enabled him to do what he was doing. Until they found out money was involved. Then they wondered - what are you doing to these kids anyway? No one cared before. We realised this is a struggle between good and evil but in a much bigger way than we thought, between greed and power, between power and the powerless, and it involved kids.
It’s obvious Kids for Cash has been a brave film to make. The best bits are taken out of 600 hours of footage that was shot over a four-year period. The film includes exclusive and extensive interviews with the victims and their families and looks at how their lives have all been affected. Each of these children incarcerated has suffered, and to the extent, that you could say, they’re now broken people. We hear the story of Charlie, one kid who did five years for riding a scooter he didn’t know was stolen and another, Hillary who created a fake MySpace profile. And, the tragic story of Ed, that ultimately comes to an end when he takes his own life. Kids for Cash is essentially the children’s story and as one critic comments - it puts the spotlight on how institutional neglect is affecting our kids.
Screening Times:
12/03/2015 08:30pm
15/03/2015 05:15pm
15/04/2015 01:35pm
16/04/2015 01:55am
24/04/2015 11:55am