What Other States Can Learn from the Pennsylvania "Cash for Kids" Scandal

In January 2009, two Luzerne County, Pennsylvania judges were charged in federal court with taking $2.6 million in payoffs to facilitate the building of a private juvenile detention facility and placement guarantees for the facility. A report issued in May 2010 by the Pennsylvania Interbranch Commission on Juvenile Justice concluded that at the core of the judges’ “cash for kids” practices was “not only the alleged criminality but undisputed incompetence which, coupled with an abuse of power condoned by the community, led essentially to a collapse of the rule of law.” This program will examine the causes identified by the Commission and its recommendations for reform to help other states identify what steps to take to reduce the chance of history repeating itself with a similar scandal.

 
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