Kids For Cash Scheme Exposes Horrors of For-Profit Prisons: DocumentaryBy Joe Wright The U.S. prison business has become the essence of predatory corporatism: it privatizes profits and socializes losses. This combination has led to a situation where correctional facilities have very little incentive to correct the behavior of those who reside within their walls, but every incentive to ensure that new bodies arrive as fast as possible, and keep them in a state of indentured servitude. This is even happening with the return of debtors prisons in some states once thought to be intelligently left behind as a brutal chapter of Medieval Europe or Victorian England. However, something even worse has taken place in the area of so-called juvenile delinquency. Luzerne County Pennsylvania Judge, Mark Ciavarella Jr., exposed the darkest underbelly of a predatory system with his role in what has come to be known as kids for cash. Ciavarella thankfully was caught and sentenced to 28 years in prison for taking more than $2 million in bribes from the builder of two detention centers. The centers were literally built and filled off of the incarceration of 3,000 juveniles (some as young as 10 years old) the vast majority of whom would later would have their convictions overturned by the Pennsylvania supreme court. A new documentary delves deeper. The documentary illustrates the case of Judge Ciavarella as the worst yet brought to light, but looks also at the overall structure that has been set up to enable this type of abuse. As pointed out by Kids For Cash, two million children are arrested every year 95% for non-violent crimes; and the United States incarcerates 5 times more children than anywhere else on earth. Once exposed to the harsh life behind bars, many children are scarred for life, with some going down the path to even worse criminality than what originally landed them in jail. Worse still, many have gone on to commit suicide like one child featured in the documentary. This film is a harsh reminder that America has a very strange way of perceiving its Land of the Free and Home of the Brave mantra. With more people locked up than any of its continuously rotated demonic enemies, its high time to honestly look around and see what America is really building. On a related note, it is also worth watching the following short documentary exposing the increased use of solitary confinement on juveniles a policy that has now been verified by science to be a form of torture. For film release and location information, please visit: To learn more about the stories of some of the children who appear in the film: Twitter: #kidsforcash Hat Tip: The Young Turks Recently by Joe Wright: 