Kids For Cash at the Luzerne County Courthouse by Capo Dave Williams 
Capo on 6th fret, play G form for Db
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The villains... Ciavarella & Conahan

G                                D                      C                                G
The Luzerne County courthouse is something you should see
         G                  D          Em                      D
they built it on the river in nineteen hundred three
           G                           D                    Em           D           Em
there's marble stairs and columns and guards at all the doors    
      C                          G                   D
with rats down in the basement and on the upper floors
       C                                      D              G                      Em
and what went on you would not believe in your wildest dreams
                C                     G                 D                          G
they sent  kids to Jail for nothin in a crooked kickback scheme 

Chorus
      C                D                G         Em
Susquehanna river keeps roll-in along
  C                     D               G                 Em
it ain't much to see with the in-dians all gone
C                        D          G            Em        C
It flooded bad in 72, not one damn thing we could do
                                             D                            G                             Em
and I hope some day, it will rise again... and take that courthouse down
   C          D               G
take that courthouse down

Verse 2
G                              D                      C                        G
with prisons bursting at the seams big money got its way
         G                         D          Em                                D
they'd run the pens for profit, who says crime doesn't pay?
G                     D             Em     D               Em
boys, this is a good one and it beats them all
            C               G                   D
we can turn a tidy profit, putin' bums behind a wall
      C                    D              G                      Em
Back in Luzerne County two judges ran the game
                 C                     G              D                     G
it was Conahan and Ciaverella, we won't forget their names

 

Verse 3
G                  D                    C                   G
two juvenile prisons were built in nearby towns
         G           D          Em                      D
by local operators they put the money down
           G                       D                      Em               D           Em
these clever men had a simple plan to make their business pay
      C                              G                   D
they gave those judges millions for sending kids away
        C                     D                       G                            Em
they sent them up for petty crimes, any charge would do
        C                     G                 D                     G
and rarely lawyers present and lots of people knew

Chorus

Verse 4
G                              D                      C                G
The judges with their cronies and others on the take
          G                                 D              Em                      D
had yachts stashed down in Boca and mansions on a lake
           G                       D                              Em         D                  Em
poor children paid, some with their lives before the scheme went down
      C                          G                   D
the biggest rats went off to jail, the rest still walk the town
      C                 D                    G                      Em
money doesn't talk, it swears, Zimmie told it true
        C                     G                                    D                       G
and prisons are just for poor folks, right?... not for me and you!

Chorus then Harmonica solo
/End