Pa. judges accused of jailing kids for cash

[Marc]

Pa. judges accused of jailing kids for cash. Judges allegedly took $2.6 million in payoffs to put juveniles in lockups. Hard to believe, but then again, I guess it's not...

In Reply to Parent Post by MSNBC

AP - 8:56 p.m. ET, Wed., Feb. 11, 2009

WILKES-BARRE, Pa. - For years, the juvenile court system in Wilkes-Barre operated like a conveyor belt: Youngsters were brought before judges without a lawyer, given hearings that lasted only a minute or two, and then sent off to juvenile prison for months for minor offenses. The explanation, prosecutors say, was corruption on the bench. In one of the most shocking cases of courtroom graft on record, two Pennsylvania judges have been charged with taking millions of dollars in kickbacks to send teenagers to two privately run youth detention centers. “I’ve never encountered, and I don’t think that we will in our lifetimes, a case where literally thousands of kids’ lives were just tossed aside in order for a couple of judges to make some money,” said Marsha Levick, an attorney with the Philadelphia-based Juvenile Law Center, which is representing hundreds of youths sentenced in Wilkes-Barre. Prosecutors say Luzerne County Judges Mark Ciavarella and Michael Conahan took $2.6 million in payoffs to put juvenile offenders in lockups run by PA Child Care LLC and a sister company, Western PA Child Care LLC. The judges were charged on Jan. 26 and removed from the bench by the Pennsylvania Supreme Court shortly afterward.

No company officials have been charged, but the investigation is still going on. The high court, meanwhile, is looking into whether hundreds or even thousands of sentences should be overturned and the juveniles’ records expunged.

Read more....

[True Position]

This is why we need to privatize the courts.

[Craig H.]

In Reply to Parent Post by Hawat

This is why we need to privatize the courts.

I am not sure that privatizing the courts would have stopped this. The privatization of the YDC is actually at the root, isn't it?

Coming from me, this might surprise some of you, but I believe that the prisons and such should NOT be left to the private sector.

As far as the crooks go, each should be charged with hundreds of counts of kidnapping and their assets frozen for later distribution to the victims. To heck with their families, its time for them to get a job.

Let's see if the judicial system decides to take care of its own.

[Randy]

That's so old..........How do you think the courts here in Arkansas ran for years. There was no way a judge earning $40,000 a year could buy a $200K home otherwise (30 years ago)

I even saw cases of misdemeanor murder adjudicated...$1000 fine and 30 days served. Homicides turned into a domestic disturbances and disturbing the peace...not that big a deal if the "plea bargain" was correct

[Jennifer Kirley]

In Reply to Parent Post by Randy

That's so old..........How do you think the courts here in Arkansas ran for years. There was no way a judge earning $40,000 a year could buy a $200K home otherwise (30 years ago)

I even saw cases of misdemeanor murder adjudicated...$1000 fine and 30 days served. Homicides turned into a domestic disturbances and disturbing the peace...not that big a deal if the "plea bargain" was correct

Who paid for it?

[Jim Wynne]

In Reply to Parent Post by Randy

That's so old..........How do you think the courts here in Arkansas ran for years. There was no way a judge earning $40,000 a year could buy a $200K home otherwise (30 years ago)

I even saw cases of misdemeanor murder adjudicated...$1000 fine and 30 days served. Homicides turned into a domestic disturbances and disturbing the peace...not that big a deal if the "plea bargain" was correct

In Chicago a friend of mine who worked for the city once gave the best definition of "clout" I ever heard. He said that his ward committeeman "...could get a charge of sodomy reduced to Following too Close."

[Randy]

That's a good one Jim

[Stijloor]

In Reply to Parent Post by Jim Wynne

In Chicago a friend of mine who worked for the city once gave the best definition of "clout" I ever heard. He said that his ward committeeman "...could get a charge of sodomy reduced to Following too Close."

Jim,

Priceless!!!!

Stijloor.