Shocking stories of juvenile (in)justice at Salisbury Forum on Feb. 1

SALISBURY — The 14-year-old girl created a Myspace page poking fun at her school vice principal; the 12-year-old boy cursed his friend’s mother; the 17-year-old boy did nothing. Yet they all suffered the same fate: juvenile jail time.

As the documentary “Kids for Cash,” the Salisbury Forum’s Feb. 1 presentation at the Millerton Moviehouse, shows, all three, like nearly 3,000 other juveniles, were hauled into court with their parents after being persuaded, or coerced, to waive their right to counsel. 

In proceedings as short as 30 seconds, without warning or a chance to defend themselves, they were pronounced guilty by Judge Mark A. Ciavarella, of Luzerne County in Pennsylvania, and sentenced to months or even years in a cockroach-infested jail.

Elected on a platform of zero tolerance for teen crime in 1995, Ciavarella rode post-Columbine fear to re-election in 2005. As he put more youngsters in jail, he realized a larger facility was needed. His friend and mentor, Judge Michael Conahan, put together an investor group to build the new facility;  Ciavarella was awarded 10 percent of construction costs, or $2.2 million, and Conahan received several hundred thousand dollars, too. 

An underworld snitch put authorities onto the kickback scheme and the whole rotten judicial mess. Ciavarella is now serving a 28-year prison sentence, and 2,480 of his juvenile convictions were reversed and expunged. Conahan, who accepted a plea bargain, is in prison for 18 years.

Longtime producer Robert May — “The Station Agent,” “The Fog of War” — in his directorial debut, made “Kids” in a novel way. 

“We decided we weren’t going to make this movie without access to the villains, the judges.” 

So May somehow persuaded the judges to be interviewed secretly before their trials — even their attorneys didn’t know. And he got five of the juvenile victims or their families to appear on camera as well. The result is a documentary that tells its shocking story from the points of view of both the judges and the juveniles they sentenced. It raises questions about how this happened, why people didn’t stand up for their rights, what juvenile justice should be and what it actually is in the U.S. today.

And what of the imprisoned youngsters? The 14-year-old girl finished college; the 12-year-old boy is now a cook; and the 17-year-old, whose father had planted a marijuana pipe in the difficult boy’s truck hoping that an arrest would scare him, committed suicide.

“Kids for Cash” will be shown by the Salisbury Forum at the Millerton Moviehouse on Sunday, Feb. 1, at 11:15 a.m. 

In a short video, Sen. Christopher Murphy (D-Conn.), who has made improving juvenile justice one of his legislative goals, will introduce the film. Director May will answer questions after the showing. Admission is free, but seating is limited.