The school-to-prison conveyor belt
explains how a minor offense in school can turn into a prison sentence.
Youth incarcerated in the juvenile systemON ONE level, Kids for Cash: Two Judges, Thousands of Children and a $2.8 Million Kickback Scheme by William Ecenbarger is a true-crime story about corrupt judges.
Two judges from Luzerne County in northeastern Pennsylvania were convicted in federal court in 2010 and 2011 of racketeering for accepting nearly $3 million in kickbacks over five years from the operator of a for-profit juvenile detention facility. In return, the judges ensured that the facilities remained filled with kids charged with offenses in delinquency court.
As a result, the rate of incarceration for youth found delinquent in Luzerne County was roughly two times the statewide average, and the percentage of youth appearing without an attorney was nearly 10 times the percentage for the state.
Mark Ciavarella was the only judge in the county presiding over delinquency cases, while Michael Conahan was the supervising judge for the county courts. Conahan made the scheme possible by ordering the closure of a county-run detention facility, clearing the way for privatization.
Ciavarella ran a kangaroo court where youth were denied the right to legal representation and routinely sent away for long periods of detention after hearings that tended to last just a few minutes.
The judges gave every indication of regarding themselves as pillars of the community, and the repulsiveness of their characters and crimes makes for a compelling story, topped off with the satisfaction of their well-deserved loss of status and prison terms that will keep them locked up for many years.
On another level, the book tells the story of trends in juvenile "justice" that were not unique to Luzerne County, but were simply taken to a shocking extreme. Ecenbarger is a journalist who covered the kids-for-cash scandal for the Philadelphia Enquirer, and for the book, he broadened the story somewhat to place it in the context of changes in the treatment of juveniles by schools, police and courts.
REVIEW: BOOKS
William Ecenbarger, Kids for Cash: Two Judges, Thousands of Children and a $2.8 Million Kickback Scheme, New Press, 304 pages, $26.95.
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THE CASE gathered national attention when the federal indictments were announced, and caused a local sensation. The focus on the kickbacks, however, meant that the most troubling aspect of the story was overshadowed.
With only a handful of exceptions, people who were knowledgeable about the sentencing practices in Luzerne County either supported them enthusiastically or failed to object. This included the prosecutors who accepted effortless "wins" and ignored clear violations of children's rights, the probation department that helped to railroad children coming before the court, and the public defender's office which acquiesced in denial of the right to counsel to keep caseloads low.
The schools were equally compromised. Ecenbarger points out the role they played in furthering the judge's crimes:
By 2005, school officials were well aware that the one certain way to rid themselves of a troublemaker was to call the police, because this would get the child before Ciavarella. These kids were not only disciplinary headaches, they often were low achievers academically and dragged down test scores, making it doubly desirable to get rid of them. Behaviors that once were matters of in-school discipline--shoving matches, foul language, disrespect to teachers--were elevated to law enforcement issues...
In short, Luzerne County educators used Ciavarella as their chief disciplinarian.
Schools regularly invited Ciavarella to address student assemblies, where he took delight in threatening the kids with what he would do to them if they ever found themselves in his courtroom. When he was handing down sentences, he couldn't spare the time to advise the youth standing before him of their right to legal representation or to inquire into their life circumstances. But he did find the time for a standardized "I-told-you-so" q-and-a, asking them to remember what he had told them he would do at school assemblies before sending them away to detention.
Often, the conduct involved was typical teen rebellion--what might be characterized as "age-appropriate misbehavior." When the investigation began, two school administrators from a vocational school wrote a letter to a local newspaper praising Ciavarella and his tough love approach.
Parents of children locked up for months were dismayed that Ciavarella's trial focused on the kickbacks and largely ignored the consequences for the children. What they came to understand was that it was only the kickbacks that distinguished Luzerne County from other jurisdictions that have embraced "zero tolerance" and "scared straight" approaches, boot camps and shock incarceration programs and privatized detention.
In his concluding chapter, Ecenbarger raises the questions:
Were it not for the millions of dollars in bribes, how much of a public outcry would there have been against the actions of these two judges? What voices would have been raised if the only wrongdoing was Ciavarella's everyday denial of the basic rights of children? It is unsettling to speculate.
Ecenbarger summarizes the problem of privatized jails for kids in a quote from the Juvenile Law Center in Philadelphia:
It is axiomatic that for-profit programs are in the business of making money. While detention centers provide some short-term services to youth, their primary mission is control. At their core, detention centers ensure that a youth will show up at trial and not commit an offense prior to trial. For-profit detention centers make their profit based on a headcount. While public detention centers will stay in business even if their populations are low, for-profit detention centers cannot afford low populations.
Thus, a privatized system is based on a business model requiring an adequate supply of young people to operate at capacity and maintain cash flow.
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ECENBARGER DOESN'T deal with the role of race in the juvenile justice system, so Kids for Cash will never be a comprehensive representation of the part that delinquency courts and youth detention play in the school-to-prison pipeline.
This isn't really Ecenbarger's fault, as the kids-for-cash scandal emerged in a white working-class community in the declining anthracite coal-mining region of northeastern Pennsylvania. Ecenbarger came to the story as a reporter without substantial exposure to juvenile justice issues, so his analysis is largely limited to what he found in Luzerne County.
In describing the context for the book, however, he might have noted that Luzerne County was an anomaly, and that the policies he describes are disproportionately applied to children and youth of color.
What Ecenbarger can be faulted for is his repeated references to "tough, inner-city kids" detained for drug involvement, in relating stories about teens from Luzerne County sent to detention. By highlighting the plight of a youth locked up for throwing a piece of steak at his stepfather during an argument, for example, who was forced to associate with other kids locked up for dealing drugs, Ecenbarger seems to be suggesting that the latter deserve to be incarcerated.
These passages are jarring, in that suburban white teens are just as likely as "tough, inner-city" teens, presumably of color, to handle and use drugs. The youth of color, however, are overwhelmingly more likely to be arrested and detained for doing so. It seems not to have occurred to Ecenbarger to ask whether locking kids up for street-level drug transactions makes any more sense than for truancy, fighting in school or disrespecting their parents.
We may never see another kids-for-cash scandal exactly like Luzerne County, with arrogant, greedy judges pocketing kickbacks in exchange for juvenile detention placements, but the worst parts of the story continue to play out all over the country.
Schools still criminalize youth by calling police to handle issues that educators should deal with, and delinquency courts still send kids to detention programs for offenses that should never result in a custodial sentence. Often, they are locked up for offenses that couldn't be prosecuted in adult courts.
In October 2012, the federal government's Justice Department filed a lawsuit against the state of Mississippi and various government bodies in the city of Meridian for policies very much like those at issue in Luzerne County. In the complaint, the Justice Department claims the Meridian school district developed new policies to call the police and have students arrested for "crimes" such as using profanity, disrespect and failing to obey a teacher's directions.
The courts, probation and other agencies cooperated by promptly locking the children up without troubling themselves with the niceties of due process and effective legal representation. Every child arrested at the request of the school district was African American.
Perhaps the most interesting line in the complaint is the statement, "Defendants in this case collectively help to operate a school-to-prison pipeline." It's a surprisingly concise and accurate statement for a formal legal document, but there are many ways in which the same accusation can be made against the U.S. Justice Department.
Despite its limited perspective, Kids for Cash is a compelling story about how the zero-tolerance culture has corrupted schools, and about the nuts and bolts of the school-to-prison pipeline. It also helps to explain how privatization of youth incarceration imposes a business model in which children and youth are raw materials and the role of the courts is to maintain an adequate supply.
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BTR News: Stop the Genocide Now w/ Carl Dix
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Tonight revolutionary brother Carl Dix joins the broadcast to inform us about an upcoming event he and Cornel West will be hosting in NYC to stop the maddening mass incarceration going on in the United States.
"Mass Incarceration + Silence = Genocide. Act to STOP it Now!" Monday May 20, 2013, 7:30pm, The Church of St. Paul & St. Andrew 263 W. 86th St (between Broadway and West End Ave), #1 train to 86th, For tickets: 212-691-3345 or online @ http://revolutionbooknyc.org
In 1996, Dix co-founded the October 22nd Coalition to Stop Police Brutality, Repression and the Criminalization of Generation. Most recently, Dix has been a central figure in the campaign to Stop "Stop and Frisk" aimed at opposing the New York Police Department's efforts to stop hundreds of thousands of people in New York City and frisk them for weapons, drugs or other items. Dix has long addressed questions about imperialist war, revolutionary struggles and the oppression of Black people.
Other news out of New York pertaining to the NYPD Gestapo & Frisk campaign against Black people. The newly appointed Black Chief of Department wastes no time in fulfilling his duties as a racially showcased weapon of mass confusion as he goes to a white borough to tell them Gestapo & Frisks is not racial profiling.
Keeping it in NYC, a bronx based Hispanic religious organization shows up to the Gestapo Frisk civil trial to show their support for a suspected racist NYPD Deputy inspector caught on tape telling officers to target Black boys and men.
Republican's outrage over Benghazi is fake
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Conservatives in Congress just won't let Benghazi go and there is talk about impeaching President Obama concerning lies pertaining to a terrorist attack. Hillary Clinton is another one in their sights but again, this is manufactured outrage as well. The answer to why four Americans were killed in Benghazi is very simple, tune in for the answer.
Guatemalan dictator and US ally Efrain Rios Montt was found guilty on charges of genocide against Mayan villagers, some are asking if US officials will be charged in connection to their support of genocide in South America. Ronald Reagan staunchly supported this mass murderer and was complicit in many crimes against humanity.
New information on the killing of Malcolm Shabazz brings more questions and suspicions. Two men have been arrested in the murder of the emerging activist but other activist believe the Mexican labor activist Manuel Suarez had something to do with the murder as his story does not pass the smell test.
Today on May 13, 1985, the City of Philadelphia used its police force to commit an act of terrorism against the Move family by dropping a two pound bomb on their home from a helicopter killing several members of the group including children. The resulting fire destroyed over 60 homes.
Racism is not "accidental" it is conscious activity.
This and probably more tonight on Black Talk Radio News.
Cleveland Police looking & smelling like pigs in Amanda Berry rescue
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Join Scotty Reid as he reviews some of the day's political and social news headlines.
Talking the Charles Ramsey rescue of Amanda Berry and others and the criminal incompetence of the Cleveland Cops who ignored several calls to rescue these women.
A long haired white student who appeared to be a predominately Black classroom spoke his mind to a teacher and condemned her for not teaching the students and preparing them for that prison pipeline.
BTR News: Lil Wayne dropped and Tyler mad Mountain Dew ad pulled
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Truth Minista Paul Scott and Robbie YasinWiseguy Alexander (ThreesixtyWiseguy) dropped in again to discuss the news of Lil Wayne being dropped by Mountain Dew and the rapper Tyler is angry that his Mountain Dew ad was banned for being racist. Why Lil Wayne, or his publicist, issued an apology, Tyler the Creator still does not get why his ad was racists and says Dr. Boyce Watkins is some "old dude" disconnected from the times.
Followed up on the news that the FBI added Black activist Assata Shakur to its most wanted "terrorist list" and erected "wanted" bill boards in Newark, New Jersey, where the film Mumia: Long distance revolutionary was banned from the only theater in town which is co-owned by the racially showcased Shaquille O'Neil.
Political Prisoner Radio
Mumia, Assata & Malcolm w/ Zayid Muhammad
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POP is planning another protest at Cineplex 12, Newark’s only major theater which stirred up controversy after it refused to show the new film titled "MUMIA: Long Distance Revolutionary" which focuses on political prisoner Mumia Abu Jamal and his contribution as an author and commentator.
We will also get his thoughts on the recent addition of Assata Shakur to the FBI's most wanted "terrorist" list and the erection of the FBI billboards of Assata in Newark.
Finally we discuss the constantly changing stories coming from the media about the killing of Malcolm X's grandson Malcolm Shabazz who was talked into traveling to Mexico by deported Mexican activist Miguel Suarez who many say has holes in his account of what happened.
Malcolm Shabazz murdered and NYC NLG issues statements on Assata Shakur
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Join me for Political Prisoner Radio tonight to discuss the breaking news concerning the tragic murder of Malcolm Shabazz, a political and human rights activist and organizer who reportedly was found murdered today in Tijuana, Mexico.
Earlier today I spoke to attorney activist Nkechi Tiafu who shared statements from the NY National Lawyers Guild and The National Conference of Black Lawyers in reference to Assasta Shakur being labeled a "domestic terrorist" by the United States government.
On A Move w/ Sis. Pam Africa
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Join me for Political Prisoner Radio tonight with Sis. Pam Africa to discuss corporate and state sponsored environmental terrorism, seedless veggies possibly destroying the seeds in our wombs, the Newark, NJ cancellation of Mumia: Long Distance Revolutionary and more.
Before we hear from Sis. Pam Africa, I want to share an important update about Sis. Assata Shakur as the United States government, perhaps angry at the attention Cuba received after Jay-Z and Beyonce visited the island which caused a new generation to question why the United States has a travel ban on the country, the FBI has double its reward for her capture and placed her on its "most wanted terrorists" list possibly making her a target for President Obama's drone assassination program.
Environmental Activism and Political Prisoners w/ Leslie James Pickering
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According to supportdaniel.org, Daniel McGowan is an environmental and social justice activist from New York City. He was charged in federal court on counts of arson, property destruction and conspiracy, all relating to two actions in Oregon in 2001. Following his arrest, Daniel was offered two choices by the government: cooperate by informing on other people, or go to trial and potentially spend the rest of his life in prison. His only real option was to plead not guilty until he could reach a resolution of the case that permitted him to honor his principles. After many months of litigation and negotiation, Daniel was able to admit to his role in these two incidents, while not implicating or identifying any other people who might have been involved.
Our guest tonight is Leslie Pickering former Earth Liberation Front spokesperson and owner of Burning Books in Buffalo, NY. According to the website lesliejamespickering.com, Leslie James Pickering was a Founder and Spokesperson for the North American Earth Liberation Front Press Office, serving with the organization from early 2000 until the summer of 2002.
During this period the Press Office sustained two raids by the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the Bureau of Alcohol Tobacco and Firearms and local law enforcement agencies, responded to over a half dozen grand jury subpoenas, conducted public presentations, produced booklets, newspapers, magazines, and a video on the Earth Liberation Front and handled the public release of communiqués for dozens of the most vital Earth Liberation Front actions.
"I don’t think that slow progress is going to do it, though. This isn’t a quality-of-life issue that we’re dealing with, the environment. It’s not something that we can pretend will be solved with our nonprofit, tax-deductible donations. This is a global catastrophe, and if we don’t act accordingly, the planet’s going to be dead. It’s not going to matter how uncomfortable we are with arson, or sabotage, or property destruction, or violent revolution, when the planet is dead. It’s not going to matter." - Leslie James Pickering
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Justice delayed for Ramarley Graham, teen killed by NYPD cop
By Scotty Reid, 5/16/2013, news, politics
There will be no justice for the family of Ramarley Graham unless another indictment against NYPD Officer Richard Haste is issued by another grand jury. Ramarley Graham is a teen who was shot in his grandmother’s bathroom while allegedly trying to flush a small amount of marijuana down the toilet. A Bronx judge tossed the indictment of the officer who shot and killed Graham claiming he had a gun but none was found. Citing mistakes…
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COINTELPRO? Malcolm X’s grandson Malcolm Shabazz found murdered
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The grandson of one of the Black communities beloved heroes, El-Hajj Malik El-Shabazz aka Malcolm X, was found murdered in Tijuana, Mexico according to New York Amsterdam News.
The reports cite a tweet by Terrie Williams of New…
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