'Every day I have to fight to live when I really don't want to' - What can be done to fix this crisis? | Kids for Cash: The New Crisis

It's the scandal that thrust Luzerne County into the spotlight. What's become known as the ‘Kids for Cash’ scandal rocked the county 15 years ago. But, more than 100 miles away, Paterson, New Jersey has one of that state's highest crime rates, according to federal numbers. Despite that, that part of Passaic County has become a safe haven for Jarolyn Diaz.

“I literally thought by running away from Pennsylvania and trying to block it it would make things better,” said Diaz. “Oh no, it brought me back as if I was in that place all over again.” 

Diaz was just a young girl when she and her family moved from New York City to Hazleton, a place that felt like freedom. 

“I never had any prior record of being a criminal or being aggressive, nothing. I was just full of life. I was a happy person. I was always laughing. Oh, I would laugh like crazy all the time,” recalls Diaz.

That laugh was silenced,  in an instant. In 2007, Diaz, 15,  made her usual walk home from Hazleton Area High School, when a police officer stopped her for jaywalking. 

“And when he threw me in the back seat of his car I started going ‘bonkers’. I started screaming and crying like ' help me help me,  get me out of here’!  Then, the next thing I saw he opened up the other door and I saw a black bottle. I didn't know what it was then, and it was pepper spray,” said Diaz. 

Diaz was sentenced by Luzerne County former judge Mark Ciavarella for jaywalking and resisting arrest. That proceeding took just minutes, and then she was immediately taken from the courtroom. 

“One of them grabbed my left arm, the other one grabbed my right arm and they started putting it behind my back. I was just saying 'mom!! Please don't let them take me. I don't want to go to jail!’,” said Diaz through the tears. 

Diaz spent 667 days,  nearly two years, at the PA Child Care facilities, including the one near Pittston. That for-profit facility in Luzerne County was at the forefront of the ‘Kids for Cash Scandal’.

Luzerne County former judge Mark Ciavarella and former president judge, Michael Conahan, were accused of shutting down the county-run juvenile detention center and accepting millions in kickbacks from the builder and co-owner of the detention center near Pittston and and another one in Western Pennsylvania.  Now, those places hold Diaz’s darkest moments, including an attempt to take her own life.

“This is real. This is really real and a lot of people tried to make me feel ashamed of that. And I'm not ashamed of it, because it's not my fault that I went through this,” cries Diaz. 

Diaz is one of the 2,500 victims, who had their records expunged after the "Kids For Cash" scandal in Luzerne County came to light. While her record is now clean, her scars still remain. 

“I really wasn't free, I thought I was… I really never left that place. I feel like I'm still in there,” she said while wiping her tears away.

Hillary Transue was the whistleblower for what's considered one of the worst judicial corruption scandals in our country's history. In 2006, Hillary was a freshman at crestwood high school in mountain top. She created a fake myspace page about her vice principal.

“ I felt like I didn't fit in, in a lot of ways but I was loud and I was funny. I knew that targeting this person that a lot of people had a problem with, would be an easy way for me to make a name for myself, build a reputation,” said Transue.

That reputation began to grow, as did the popularity of the page.

“It did become cruel at one point. Kids were allowed to leave comments on there and because I had chosen this figure who was widely disliked, kids would have a problem with the vice principal at school and then would come home and vent those frustrations on this myspace page I created,” she recalled. 

However, the myspace page was short-lived, as its popularity died out. Transue said she had nearly forgotten about the fake page, until one day… 

“My mom called up from the bottom of the stairs and she said 'Hillary do you know anything about a myspace page? And my blood ran cold,” said Transue.

Transue was sentenced in 2007. Hillary had no representation in the courtroom, like thousands of other kids who came in front of Luzerne County judge Mark Ciavarella. 

“And the moment when, you know, Ciavarella said 'send her up to FACT' and I had no idea what that meant but his gavel came down,” she recalled.     `

She was sentenced to three months in juvenile detention, and 6 months probation... But, Transue says there were loopholes.

“So if I misbehaved in any way during my time in juvie that displeased Judge Ciavarella,  he could keep resentencing me until I was 21 years old so you could be in the system forever,” she stated. 

Then, just three weeks into her sentence, the Juvenile Law Center stepped in. The Philadelphia-based non-profit first heard about what was happening in Ciavarella's courtroom when Hillary's mom reached out. Marsha Levick is the Juvenile Law Center’s Chief legal officer and a co-founder of the non-profit.

“Our shock was really about the way the kids are treated in the courtroom. We did not initially know about the financial dealings that were going on,” said Levick.  

Those financial dealings involved upwards of three million dollars. Both judges are still serving sentences for racketeering conspiracy.  

“The kids that were affected by Ciavarella, the people who were affected by him, they aren't mad because he took money. That's salt in the wound, what we're mad about is that he heard us that he took advantage that he didn't see us he saw us this little monsters or little terrorists and he didn't see us as whole human beings,”  

The Juvenile Law Center continued to work to bring changes to Pennsylvania's juvenile justice system. Now, it's nearly impossible for kids to give up their right to counsel, and easier to expunge juvenile records. The state has also tightened regulations for removing kids from their homes and placing them in detention centers. All of it, solidified into law. 

“Based on ‘Kids for Cash’, we've really put in place those protections inside the courtrooms where they were violated, the things we're now working on are the next steps,” said Pennsylvania Senator, Lisa Baker.

All of these changes have* led to a drop in juvenile incarceration rates. Chadwick Libby is the President of the PA Council of Chief Juvenile Probation Officers 

“Our success, we've really become a victim of it. In a way that we have reduced secure detention admissions by 74%,” said Libby.

The changes also led to the closure of a dozen county and privately run juvenile detention facilities. Those closures have helped create a severe shortage of juvenile detention beds across the state, leaving many counties, including Luzerne, with nowhere to house their most violent juvenile offenders. Judge Michael Vough, President Judge of Luzerne County Court of Common Pleas, says it’s a safety crisis. 

“There are zero beds, detention beds within our region- within Luzerne County. We have children that we're detaining in other counties and sometimes, even other states. So it is a crisis,’ said Vough. 

According to the Juvenile Judge's Court Commission, the decrease in juvenile placements across the state has saved Pennsylvania $172 million over the past decade.

But what's been done with all that money?

“It is always a mystery where the savings go. Some states have been very intentional about reinvestment and taking those savings from the shuttering of facilities and the reducing of incarceration and really pouring them back into the community service. To the Extent that Pennsylvania has failed to do that, we need to ask ourselves why?,” asked Levick, in her Philadelphia office. 

The Pennsylvania Juvenile Justice Task force was created under former Governor, Tom Wolf. It was tasked with conducting a comprehensive data-driven assessment of Pennsylvania’s juvenile justice system over 16 months, reviewing laws and policies, and researching what works to improve outcomes. The task force delivered 35 recommendations in its final report to help fix the flaws within the juvenile justice system. 

However, that final report was delivered two years ago, and the state legislature has yet to pass a bill related to those recommendations. State senator, Lisa Baker from Luzerne County is a co-chair of the task force, and says she's working to free up some of the $172 million in savings. 

“One of the bills that i have in the appropriations committee would redirect the resources into community based care and into programs and services,” said Sen. Baker. 

 “I think it's really unacceptable to say this is just the way it goes, because kids don't have the luxury of time,” added The Juvenile Law Center’s Levick. 

So, what can be done?  A regional detention center may be the fix, according to a majority of the officials we interviewed. The Pennsylvania Juvenile Court Judges' Commission estimates that 12 counties throughout Northeastern Pennsylvania would need anywhere from 35 to 43 detention beds. Luzerne County Probation Director, Kevin Perluke, says other counties operate with a regional center, and it works.

“We want to help solve this as best as we can, I don't think it's going to happen overnight. We have some resources in the community that are helping this, like putting a Band-aid on it right now. But we still need that detention center,” said Perluke.

But, history could be holding us back. Senator Marty Flynn says there could be some hesitation to bring a juvenile detention facility back to Luzerne County. 

“We owe it to that child to get them out of that situation and to rehabilitate them somewhere else. Not to have a knee-jerk reaction because 10 years ago there was a judge scandal where our juvenile system was tipped upside down. that doesn't mean it doesn't exist anymore,” said Senator Flynn.

As the spotlight once again shines on the juvenile justice system in Luzerne County. A place where it all began 15 years ago... A place that left so many young people with so many scars ...  

“Every single day I  wake up having to fight to live.. when I really don't want to... because I can't get it out of my head,” said Diaz.  

And a place where the scandal continues to live on, in this new crisis of ‘Kids for Cash’.

This is the third part of this series. Part one and Part two focused on the current detention bed crisis, and the impact it's having on our schools.