Posted on 02/11/2009 2:54:05 PM PST by mgstarr
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.
Among the offenders were teenagers who were locked up for months for stealing loose change from cars, writing a prank note and possessing drug paraphernalia. Many had never been in trouble before. Some were imprisoned even after probation officers recommended against it.
Many appeared without lawyers, despite the U.S. Supreme Court's landmark 1967 ruling that children have a constitutional right to counsel.
(Excerpt) Read more at news.yahoo.com ...
They should make one for the whole state of PA. Clink goes the prison door.
>Our Nation is toast, unless “We the People” take back our governmental institutions from the best criminals that money can buy.
Agreed, and the way things are looking it ain’t going to be a tea party that gets the Federales attention... more like an ammo party.
I’m a judge and I’m sickened by this. Please don’t paint us all with the same brush. I actually care about the youth who come before me.
>Yes these judges should be executed....taking bribes from private run prisons...getting government money to break the law....
Ah, yes. But we all know that even our votes don’t matter, as is the case with all those “recounts”...
Ciavarella is the top pic and Conahan the bottom pic.
Keep an eye on this story. I predict that there will be MUCH more corruption outed in Luzerne County. And after that, there’s plenty to go after in the county directly north of there, Lackawanna County (hometown county of Joe Biden).
What, there’s some nasty old lady in the neighborhood who pays the judges to send kids to jail?
I guess the only real silver lining in this tragedy is a whole generation of youth are now conservative after knowing first hand the corruption of a democrat held state
To be honest, I don’t trust elected officials in general regardless of party, though I distrust (D)’s more.
Your Honor, care to comment on post #19
My apologies. My opinion is tainted by personal experience and what is happening, by and large, to our laws, their original meaning and intent, and the balance of publicity that is prevalent. Of course, not all of the legal profession is corrupt, but you must admit that your colleagues are not doing a ‘bang-up’ job of weeding out the bad apples.
Care to comment on how a guy involved in a divorce proceeding can end up spending 14+ years in jail on a civil contempt charge??? (See the case of H. Beatty Chadwick) No habeus corpus, every appeal denied by higher courts??? Smacks of monarchs and despots to me.
It is in every county in PA and it’s not just kids that get railroaded either.
“There’s no way to rule innocent men. The only power any government has is the power to crack down on criminals. Well, when there aren’t enough criminals, one makes them. One declares so many things to be a crime that it becomes impossible to live without breaking laws.”
— Ayn Rand, “Atlas Shrugged”
One teen girl was imprisoned for making a myspace page that lampooned her school's principal so I don't think they were all hardened thugs. Of course, some of them were undoubtedly hardened after they got out.
I guess there’s no First Amendment anymore.
Amateurs.
In NY state, it’s called a surcharge.
They soak you for money and let you go so the process can repeat.
But, unfortunately, law by no means confines itself to its proper functions. And when it has exceeded its proper functions, it has not done so merely in some inconsequential and debatable matters. The law has gone further than this; it has acted in direct opposition to its own purpose. The law has been used to destroy its own objective: It has been applied to annihilating the justice that it was supposed to maintain; to limiting and destroying rights which its real purpose was to respect. The law has placed the collective force at the disposal of the unscrupulous who wish, without risk, to exploit the person, liberty, and property of others. It has converted plunder into a right, defense into a crime, in order to punish lawful defense.
THE LAW By Fredric Bastiat (1801 to 1850)
Ciavarella overdosed on orange-man tanning lotion.
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