Shackled: A Tale of Wronged Kids, Rogue Judges, and a Town that Looked Away2025 YALSA Excellence in Nonfiction Finalist CCBC Choices 2025 2025 NCSS-CBC Notable Social Studies Book Winner YALSA Quick Pick for Reluctant Young Adult Readers The New York Public Library Best Books for Teens 2024 Here is the explosive story of the Kids for Cash scandal in Pennsylvania, a judicial justice miscarriage that sent more than 2,500 children and teens to a for-profit detention center while two judges lined their pockets with cash, as told by Candy J. Cooper, an award-winning journalist and Pulitzer Prize finalist. In the early 2000s, Judge Mark Ciavarella and Judge Michael Conahan of Luzerne County, Pennsylvania were known as no-nonsense judges. Juveniles who showed up in their courtrooms faced harsh words and even harsher sentencing. In the post-Columbine era, many people believed that was just what the county needed to ensure its children and teens stayed on the straight and narrow path. But as more and more children faced shocking sentences for seemingly benign crimes, and a newly built for-profit detention center filled up further and further, a sinister pattern of abuses and bribery emerged. Through extensive research and original reporting leading into contemporary times, award-winning journalist Candy J. Cooper tells the story of a scandal that the Juvenile Law Center calls “one of the largest and most serious violations of children’s rights in the history of the American legal system.” |
Contents
CHAPTER | 9 |
CHAPTER 2 | 19 |
CHAPTER 3 | 35 |
CHAPTER4 FOUR MEN AND TWO BUILDINGS | 45 |
KIDS FOR CASH | 52 |
CHAPTER 6 | 63 |
CHAPTER 7 | 69 |
CHAPTER 8 | 77 |
RAGE AND SORROW | 112 |
CHAPTER 14 | 119 |
CHAPTER 15 | 124 |
CHAPTER 16 | 131 |
CHAPTER 17 | 137 |
CHAPTER 18 | 148 |
CHAPTER 19 | 155 |
Authors Note | 164 |
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anthracite assault attorney Bufalino called Carisa and Angelia Carisa Tomkiel CCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCO CCCCCCO children and youth Citizens Commission on Juvenile condo corruption criminal D'Elia Dave Janoski detained dollars drug Ecenbarger Elizabeth Habel February February 13 federal going Hackney hearing Hillary interview with author jail January 11 Jennifer Learn-Andes Judge Ciavarella Judge Conahan Judge Conner Judge Mark Ciavarella Judge Michael Conahan jury juvenile court juvenile detention center Juvenile Justice Juvenile Law Kelcy Kids for Cash Knox Mine Disaster Lamoreaux later lawyer Leader Levick lockup Lokuta looked Luzerne County Luzerne County Courthouse Matt Birkbeck Matthew Samson million mother Muroski northeastern Pennsylvania oath organized crime parents Pennsylvania Child Pennsylvania Interbranch Commission Philadelphia Inquirer plaintiffs police Powell's prison probation officer reporter Robert Powell Russell Bufalino sentenced shackled Sisak story testified testimony Voice Wallace West Pittston Wilkes-Barre William Big Billy Wolensky workers young youth court Zappala