Kids for cash scandal

For the documentary, see Kids for Cash.

The kids for cash scandal was a political scandal that occurred in Luzerne County, Pennsylvania in 2009. Michael Conahan and Mark Ciavarella, two judges at the Luzerne County Court of Common Pleas in Wilkes-Barre, were exposed for receiving kickbacks in return for harsh adjudications on juvenile deliquents to increase occupancy at a private prison operated by PA Child Care. Conahan and Ciavarella sent thousands of children in Luzerne County to extended stays in private youth detention centers for minor offenses, some as trivial as trespassing in a vacant building and mocking an assistant principal on Myspace, despite complaints being filed against the judges for their excessive adjudications.

Conahan and Ciavarella were investigated for corruption dating back to 2000, while Robert Mericle, a real estate developer who built and owned the two juvenile detention centers; Robert Powell, a co-owner of the private prisons; and Sandra Brulo, former deputy director of Forensic Services for the Luzerne County Juvenile Probation Office, were also implicated and convicted on additional charges related to the scandal. Conahan and Ciavarella were charged with various racketeering charges after a judge rejected an initial plea agreement in 2009, a federal grand jury returned a 48-count indictment. Conahan pleaded guilty to one count of racketeering conspiracy in 2010 and was sentenced to 17.5 years in federal prison. Ciavarella opted to go to trial, being convicted on 12 of 39 counts in 2011 and sentenced to 28 years in federal prison.

The Supreme Court of Pennsylvania overturned hundreds of adjudications of delinquency in Luzerne County in the wake of the scandal. The Juvenile Law Center filed a class action lawsuit against the judges and numerous other parties, and the Pennsylvania General Assembly created a commission to investigate juvenile justice problems in Luzerne County. Conahan, who had been released to home confinement in 2020, had his sentence (due to end in 2026) commuted in 2024 by President Joe Biden.

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