US youth justice scandal highlighted in documentary 'Kids for Cash'
Documentary shows how teenagers jailed by corrupt judges are rebuilding their lives
Charlie Balasavage, a baby-faced boy of 14, landed in juvenile detention after his parents bought him a stolen scooter.
Hillary Transue was sent away over a MySpace parody of her vice-principal.
Justin Bodnar was locked up for mouthing off to a woman at his school bus stop.
They are just three among thousands of youths whose lives were derailed by a corrupt Pennsylvania judge, a post-Columbine fervour for zero-tolerance policies and a secretive juvenile court system, according to a story detailed in a new US documentary Kids for Cash.
"I wanted them to be scared out of their minds. I don't understand how that's a bad thing," disgraced former judge Mark Ciavarella says in the film, which chronicles the abusive practices - and kickback scandal - that festered behind closed doors at his Wilkes-Barre courtroom.
The film premieres tomorrow in Philadelphia before opening in cinemas across the US.
Ciavarella is serving a 28-year sentence - and fellow ex-judge Michael Conahan 17 years - for taking US$2.6 million from companies looking to build and fill a youth detention centre for Luzerne County.