As federal prosecutors present evidence this week in the “kids for cash” trial of former Luzerne County Judge Mark Ciavarella, it paints a picture of a bold — and illegal — way to make crime pay.

Ciavarella has been charged with sentencing young offenders to for-profit juvenile detention centers in exchange for kickbacks from a construction company owner and builder of PA Child Care detention center outside Wilkes-Barre.

PA Child Care has another facility in northern Butler County that is owned by Gregory Zappala, a former JPMorgan Chase investment banker who, for a number of years, had dealings with Butler County officials. Zappala has not been charged in the “kids for cash” case.

Prosecutors also allege that Ciavarella extorted cash from the juvenile center’s former co-owner, Robert Powell, threatening to send the juveniles elsewhere if Powell didn’t pay up.

Prosecutors argue that Ciavarella and Michael Conahan, the other judge charged in the scheme, took in about $2.8 million while sentencing as many as 2,000 young offenders charged with relatively minor crimes to overly long sentences at PA Child Care. The state Supreme Court has overturned thousands of convictions related to this case, saying the youths were denied their constitutional rights.

Conahan, the former Luzerne County president judge, already has pleaded guilty to racketeering conspiracy.

Ciavarella, if he is found guilty, and Conahan are shocking examples of making crime pay — handsomely.

The old adage that crime is a growth industry remains truer than ever. More and more, people are realizing that, for some, crime might pay, but it’s also true that for many, including taxpayers, crime costs.

Many experts on crime are suggesting that America needs to rethink its criminal justice system, particularly the “tough on crime” approach characterized by “three strikes” laws and mandatory mininum sentences. This approach is costly, in dollars as well as damaged lives, and has failed to reduce crime.

Several decades ago, frustration with repeat offenders getting out of prison with light sentences and easy parole led to the tough-on-crime movement.

That development was seen as a way to make crime pay — for, among others, unions and prison workers. It’s now known that the prison guards union in California was a major force in getting “three strikes” laws passed. Three strikes laws meant more prisoners locked up for more years — and that meant more prison jobs and more dues-paying members.

The United States has seen a prison-industrial complex develop to find profit in high incarceration rates. And when it comes to incarceration rates, the U.S. leads the world. The U.S. also inprisons more of its youth than any other country in the world.

Also troubling is the fact that half of all people in state prisons were convicted of non-violent or victimless crimes. And about 20 percent of those in prison are there for drug offenses. Violent-crime rates are flat, while prison populations have exploded.

In recent years, people from across the political spectrum have begun to question the incarceration rates, minimum sentences and the costs — both financial and human — of the current U.S. system. It’s time to look at the criminal justice system in the same analytical way we’re looking at health care and education — to figure out what works and what doesn’t, and be willing to make changes.

The kids-for-cash scheme is shocking, and was caught and stopped earlier. Beyond the alleged crimes committed by the two judges, sentencing laws and prisons are ripe for reform.