Holes: Kids For Cash Scandal

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The “Kids for Cash Scandal” was a disgrace that took place in Pennsylvania in 2008, where local judges were being bribed, an amount that resulted in millions of dollars, to send kids to harsh privately owned boot camps, when the young teens only in fact committed mere violations of the law, and at most deserved a small fine. I am sure however, whether pocketing change from unlocked cars, trespassing in abandoned buildings, or mocking people on MySpace, a child would never expect to go through what these kids did as punishment. In the book Holes, written nearly ten years prior to the incident, the main character, a young boy named Stanley Yelnats was held guilty for a crime he never committed, and sent to a seemingly innocent camp, used as a juvenile detention center, where kids build character by digging holes, five-foot long and five-foot wide all day, everyday. Stanley, along with the victims of the scandal, were both unjustly sent to these labor camps, but treated like the many who deserved to be there. One mother remembered seeing the kids having to sleep outside, in weather that was below twenty degrees, with nothing but a pavillion and…show more content…
Even staff would say to me, "What are you doing here? Why are you here?" And I would say, "I don’t know." Just like Stanley, both boys were influenced, and in a way, made into, one of these boys. Stanley, although, when asked of his wrong doing, wasn’t believed. Charlie, along with most of the over 5,000 children involved, didn’t have a lawyer, a heavyset young man of just fourteen, was convinced that he would tell the judge the truth, and they would understand, because just like Stanley, he hadn’t stolen the object, Charlie had just bought it from the thief

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