There’s lots of money to be made abusing kids, not just by operators of the teen “treatment” industries, but by those who funnel kids into the system. New documentary Kids for Cash tells the story of how two Pennsylvania judges earned millions of dollars for referring their charges into a privately operated teen treatment facility. The judges earned millions in kickbacks before they were caught. The kids, incarcerated for minor offenses, lost their families, their friends, their lives. After they were released many of them struggled to cope after being institutionalized.
I’ve been following this story for awhile. There are some parallels. I grew up in this small town in the Mississippi Delta. Many of us were sent to this short term facility, Parkwood, up outside of Memphis in Olive Branch, MS. Several of the Parkwood kids were then referred to long-term facilities. I’ve heard rumors that some individuals at that facility earned finders’ fees for referring us to long-term facilities. It wouldn’t surprise me. I knew the doctors never had what was best for me in mind. All they cared about was the bottom line.
I’m glad this documentary, Kids for Cash, which has actual interviews with one of the judges, is letting this truth come out. It’s interesting that it is being released the same year as Kidnapped for Christ, the documentary which exposes abuse at the teen treatment facility I attended, Escuela Caribe. Maybe this exposure will press the Senate to consider the Stop Child Abuse in Residential Programs for Teens Act.