Shackled by Candy J. Cooper

 

Shackled by Candy Cooper

Raylenne M., Julio M. and Diana J.

Review

Candy J. Cooper’s Shackled: A Tale of Wronged Kids, Rogue Judges, and a Town That Looked Away is a powerful and unsettling account of the Kids for Cash scandal that overtook Luzerne County, Pennsylvania. Cooper reveals how Judge Mark Ciavarella and Judge Michael Conahan orchestrated a scheme that pushed children into privately owned detention centers in exchange for financial gains. The book’s strength lies in its attention to the young people whose lives were upended. Cooper follows kids who are disciplined for ordinary teenage behavior that would normally result in a lecture, not incarceration. These kids are suddenly removed from their homes and placed in punishing environments that profit from their enrollment.

 

Feltz, Renee. Kids for Cash. 26 Feb. 2014. The Indypendent, https://indypendent.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/02/kidsforcash-kids-PLEASEDOUBLECHECK.jpg. Accessed 17 Dec. 2025. 


By grounding the narrative in their voices, Cooper reveals the human cost behind a scandal that many people encountered only as a headline. Shackled matters because it makes readers feel the weight of what it means for a community to fail its youth. Throughout the book, Cooper exposes the broader culture of compliance and fear that allowed these abuses to flourish. School officials defer to the judges, law enforcement rarely questions the outcomes, and many adults begin to believe that harsh punishment is simply how things work. Cooper demonstrates how easily cruelty can become routine when those in power stop imagining alternatives. 

                                     Corrupt kids-for-cash Judges Mark A. Ciavarella and Michael Conahan


For teachers, Shackled offers a crucial examination of how fragile youth development can become when adults in positions of authority fail to uphold fairness. In several of the accounts, students describe losing their sense of safety in spaces that once felt familiar. Others talk about returning home and realizing that the world has moved on without them. Cooper’s writing allows readers to understand how these young people struggle to reclaim not only their education but also their confidence and connection to others. The book invites educators to reflect on how quickly a child’s life can be altered when the systems around them operate without transparency or compassion. Coming-of-age scholarship can help clarify the depth of this disruption. Kent Baxter writes that coming of age typically involves a transition from dependence to maturity, driven by the quest for identity and a sense of belonging. Abel and Hirsch describe how the genre relies on a social environment that fosters the development of a young person’s capacities. Shackled reveals a situation where that support collapses. Instead of finding adults who guide them, these kids encounter authority figures who exploit their vulnerability. Instead of navigating challenges that help them grow, they are pushed into institutions that halt their development. This contrast highlights how the scandal not only violated legal standards but also undermined public trust. It also severed the developmental path that coming-of-age narratives assume young people will follow.

                                                                                                     Kids for Cash - S 2013


Ultimately, Cooper’s book stands out because it transforms a moment of public scandal into a study of what happens when a community loses sight of its responsibility to protect its children. Her storytelling is clear and emotionally grounded, which makes the book accessible to high school students while still offering depth for teachers and scholars. Shackled insists that readers acknowledge the long-term impact of institutional betrayal and challenges them to recognize the danger of assuming that youth automatically receive the care they deserve. Cooper leaves her audience with a pressing question that lingers after the final page: what does it mean for a young person to grow up in a world that does not protect them, and what must change to ensure that this harm never happens again?


WHTM - abc27 News. “ Pennsylvania Kids-for-Cash Judges Ordered to Pay More than $200M.” YouTube, YouTube, www.youtube.com/watch?v=Duij15v5-eI. Accessed 17 Dec. 2025. 

Biography

                                                    About Candy J. Cooper

Shackled author Candy J Cooper is a Pulitzer Prize finalist from Michigan. She attended the University of Wisconsin, where she got her degree in journalism. Cooper specializes in nonfiction writing and has written several nonfiction books, including an anthology of essays on stepfamily dynamics, such as My Father Married Your Mother: Dispatches from the Blended Family. Her other works include Poisoned Water, a book she co-authored with Marc Aronson. Poisoned Water is a young adult non-fiction book about the 2014 Flint, Michigan water crisis. Cooper’s area of interest and expertise is in uncovering injustices of all kinds, especially those pertaining to young adults and children. Topics include environmental injustice, domestic and sexual abuse, inhumane imprisonment, and unlawful convictions. She conducts investigative reporting and has won the Selden Ring Award for her journalistic endeavors, most of which have been published in several prestigious newspapers, including The New York Times and The Columbia Review. Her investigative process involves going to the location of whatever she is writing about and interviewing people related to the topic she is focusing on. Her ability to go on location and see and experience things firsthand is also part of this process. For Shackled, she used written, visual, and audio records of the kids for the cash scandal. She has worked as a staff writer at four newspapers, such as The Detroit Free Press and the San Francisco Examiner. Cooper currently resides in Montclair, New Jersey, where she has served as an adjunct professor of journalism at both Montclair State University and William Paterson University.  

Instructional Resources:

  1. Kids for Cash Trial: This YouTube video documents the trial of the three judges who had to pay millions to their victims. This summarizes how the trial ended.
  2. Luzerne "Kids for Cash" Article: An in-depth look at the crime from the Juvenile Law Center. It shows how the crime happened from the perspective of experts in juvenile crime.
  3. Kids for Cash: The video shows the mother of one of the children involved in the Kids for Cash scandal. She speaks out on her son's experience and the fallout. TW: Self-Harm
  4. CSUF ENGL 434 Blog

Instructional Activity:

Preview:




    This two-day class assignment utilizes a mock trial structure to help students actively engage with Chapter 1 of Shackled by Candy Cooper, recreating the hearing of Carissa and Angelia, and evaluating whether due process was upheld. On day 1, students analyze the case by examining evidence, identifying legal issues such as a lack of representation, and forming an initial verdict based on fairness and justice. On day 2, students deepen their understanding by assuming roles such as prosecution, defense, witnesses, and jurors, requiring them to argue their positions, assess evidence, and reach a collective verdict. This activity is especially effective for 12th-grade government students because it directly connects the text to core civic concepts, such as due process, judicial power, and the impact of the legal system on young people. By participating in the trial, students move beyond passive reading and gain a clearer, more critical understanding of how the events in Chapter 1 illustrate systemic power imbalances and the real-world processes of government.

California Common Core Standards:

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RH.11-12.7
Integrate and evaluate multiple sources of information presented in diverse formats and media (e.g., visually, quantitatively, as well as in words) in order to address a question or solve a problem.


CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RH.11-12.8
Evaluate an author's premises, claims, and evidence by corroborating or challenging them with other information.


CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RH.11-12.9

Integrate information from diverse sources, both primary and secondary, into a coherent understanding of an idea or event, noting discrepancies among sources.

Resources and Preparation:

Prepared by the Teacher

  • Printed copies of the two-day trial activity handouts
  • Role cards or a projected list of roles (judge, prosecution, defense, defendants, witnesses, jury)
  • Board, projector, or slides with key terms (due process, fairness, judicial power)
  • Timer or clock to manage trial segments

Prepared by Students

  • Completed reading notes or annotations for Chapter 1
  • Trial activity packet (Day 1 analysis and Day 2 notes)
  • Writing materials (pen/pencil, notebook)
  • Evidence notes pulled directly from the text
  • Optional: prepared opening or closing statement notes for assigned roles

Instructional Plan:

Day 1: Case Review and Evidence Analysis
  • Briefly review Chapter 1 of Shackled and review the basic facts of the case. 
  • Go over key government terms: due process, fairness, and the role of the justice system.
  • Students complete the warm-up by providing an initial reaction to the hearing and explaining their reasoning.
  • Students answer case analysis questions, focusing on the charge, lack of legal representation, and moments of unfairness.
  • Students select evidence and write a short, supported verdict to prepare for the trial.
Day 2: Mock Trial and Reflection
  • Assign roles (prosecution, defense, defendants, witnesses, jury) and review expectations.
  • Prosecution and defense present opening statements.
  • Witnesses testify, and both sides present and challenge evidence.
  • Prosecution and defense give closing arguments.
  • Jury deliberates and announces a verdict, followed by a brief class discussion comparing it to the book and connecting it to due process and government power.
  • Students discuss and reflect on if, how, and why the verdict might have been different from Chapter 1. 


Bibliography:

Cooper, Candy J. Shackled. Penguin Random House, 2004.

Abel, Elizabeth, et al. The Voyage In: Fictions of Female Development. Hanover And London, 1983.

Baxter, Kent. “On ‘Coming of Age.’” Coming of Age (Critical Insights), pp. 1–15.

Cooper, Candy J. n.d. “Candy.Com.” LinkedIn. Retrieved December 17, 2025. (https://www.linkedin.com/company/candy.com). 

Cooper, Candy  J. n.d. “About.” Candy J. Cooper. Retrieved December 17, 2025. (https://www.candyjcooper.com/about). 

WHTM - abc27 News. “ Pennsylvania Kids-for-Cash Judges Ordered to Pay More than $200M.” YouTube, YouTube, www.youtube.com/watch?v=Duij15v5-eI. Accessed 17 Dec. 2025. 

Feltz, Renee. Kids for Cash. 26 Feb. 2014. The Indypendent, https://indypendent.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/02/kidsforcash-kids-PLEASEDOUBLECHECK.jpg. Accessed 17 Dec. 2025. THR Staff. 19 Nov. 2013. 

The Hollywood Reporter, https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/wpcontent/uploads/2013/11/kids_for_cash_key_image_-_courtesy_of_times_leader_publications.jpg. Accessed 17 Dec. 2017. 

Rooks, Fran. Corrupt kids-for-cash Judges Mark A. Ciavarella and Michael Conahan. 15 Dec. 2023. HubPages, https://images.saymedia-content.com/.image/t_share/MjAxODk0OTc4ODQ1Mjg4MjI2/scars-of-the-corrupt-cash-for-kids-judges.jpg. Accessed 17 Dec. 2025. 

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