Judges take bribes to send youth to private prisons
This is insane, and shows the fundamental flaw in the concept of private, profit driven prisons.
Here's a link to the full article: http://uk.reuters.com/article/burningIssues/idUKTRE51B7B320090212
U.S. judges admit to jailing children for money
By Jon Hurdle
PHILADELPHIA (Reuters) - Two judges pleaded guilty on Thursday to accepting more than $2.6 million from a private youth detention center in Pennsylvania in return for giving hundreds of youths and teenagers long sentences.
Judges Mark Ciavarella and Michael Conahan of the Court of Common Pleas in Luzerne County, Pennsylvania, entered plea agreements in federal court in Scranton admitting that they took payoffs from PA Childcare and a sister company, Western PA Childcare, between 2003 and 2006.
"Your statement that I have disgraced my judgeship is true," Ciavarella wrote in a letter to the court. "My actions have destroyed everything I worked to accomplish and I have only myself to blame."
Conahan, who along with Ciavarella faces up to seven years in prison, did not make any comment on the case.
When someone is sent to a detention center, the company running the facility receives money from the county government to defray the cost of incarceration. So as more children were sentenced to the detention center, PA Childcare and Western PA Childcare received more money from the government, prosecutors said.
Teenagers who came before Ciavarella in juvenile court often were sentenced to detention centers for minor offenses that would typically have been classified as misdemeanors, according to the Juvenile Law Center, a Philadelphia nonprofit group.
One 17-year-old boy was sentenced to three months' detention for being in the company of another minor caught shoplifting.
Others were given similar sentences for "simple assault" resulting from a schoolyard scuffle that would normally draw a warning, a spokeswoman for the Juvenile Law Center said.
The Constitution guarantees the right to legal representation in U.S. courts. But many of the juveniles appeared before Ciavarella without an attorney because they were told by the probation service that their minor offenses didn't require one.
Marsha Levick, chief counsel for the Juvenile Law Center, estimated that of approximately 5,000 juveniles who came before Ciavarella from 2003 and 2006, between 1,000 and 2,000 received excessively harsh detention sentences. She said the center will sue the judges, PA Childcare and Western PA Childcare for financial compensation for their victims.
"That judges would allow their greed to trump the rights of defendants is just obscene," Levick said.
The judges attempted to hide their income from the scheme by creating false records and routing payments through intermediaries, prosecutors said.
The Pennsylvania Supreme Court removed Ciavarella and Conahan from their duties after federal prosecutors filed charges on January 26. The court has also appointed a judge to review all the cases involved.
Here's a link to the full article: http://uk.reuters.com/article/burningIssues/idUKTRE51B7B320090212
U.S. judges admit to jailing children for money
By Jon Hurdle
PHILADELPHIA (Reuters) - Two judges pleaded guilty on Thursday to accepting more than $2.6 million from a private youth detention center in Pennsylvania in return for giving hundreds of youths and teenagers long sentences.
Judges Mark Ciavarella and Michael Conahan of the Court of Common Pleas in Luzerne County, Pennsylvania, entered plea agreements in federal court in Scranton admitting that they took payoffs from PA Childcare and a sister company, Western PA Childcare, between 2003 and 2006.
"Your statement that I have disgraced my judgeship is true," Ciavarella wrote in a letter to the court. "My actions have destroyed everything I worked to accomplish and I have only myself to blame."
Conahan, who along with Ciavarella faces up to seven years in prison, did not make any comment on the case.
When someone is sent to a detention center, the company running the facility receives money from the county government to defray the cost of incarceration. So as more children were sentenced to the detention center, PA Childcare and Western PA Childcare received more money from the government, prosecutors said.
Teenagers who came before Ciavarella in juvenile court often were sentenced to detention centers for minor offenses that would typically have been classified as misdemeanors, according to the Juvenile Law Center, a Philadelphia nonprofit group.
One 17-year-old boy was sentenced to three months' detention for being in the company of another minor caught shoplifting.
Others were given similar sentences for "simple assault" resulting from a schoolyard scuffle that would normally draw a warning, a spokeswoman for the Juvenile Law Center said.
The Constitution guarantees the right to legal representation in U.S. courts. But many of the juveniles appeared before Ciavarella without an attorney because they were told by the probation service that their minor offenses didn't require one.
Marsha Levick, chief counsel for the Juvenile Law Center, estimated that of approximately 5,000 juveniles who came before Ciavarella from 2003 and 2006, between 1,000 and 2,000 received excessively harsh detention sentences. She said the center will sue the judges, PA Childcare and Western PA Childcare for financial compensation for their victims.
"That judges would allow their greed to trump the rights of defendants is just obscene," Levick said.
The judges attempted to hide their income from the scheme by creating false records and routing payments through intermediaries, prosecutors said.
The Pennsylvania Supreme Court removed Ciavarella and Conahan from their duties after federal prosecutors filed charges on January 26. The court has also appointed a judge to review all the cases involved.
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Eric Murray on -
We speak of a justice system as though it were some amorphous beast slinking down dark alleyways awaiting the opportunity to pounce on the innocent. The opposite is true. Ciavarella and Conahan are we, and only distinct because they themselves have now been adjudicated. These human men arrived at the corner of circumstance and incentive and chose to jay walk. While we should not for a minute slow our outraged posture, we should also silently calculate at what grand price do any of us demand.
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Permalink Reply by Darlisa T. Scott on -
thats a shame...thats why budget money goes to incarceration because of things like this..If u cant trust the justice system to better yur life..its up to everyone to make a difference and change it...Hungry for money most likely leads to corruption...which is what the world is going through
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Permalink Reply by Laurinda Ballard-Boyd on -
Thank God there are people not accepting this. We have to fight for our rights all the time. T
The Gathering is a beautiful orgainzation with a lot of amazing people.
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Permalink Reply by Laurinda Ballard-Boyd on
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Kuza, thanks for bring this to my attention. There is so much wrong going on, how are we ever going to get it right if people are exposed like this. The children desire better than this, and if I have any thing to
do with it I'm going to make sure they get better.
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The mission of The Gathering is to build an Intergenerational, movement, rooted in history, cultures and non-violent direct action to heal communities, build collective strength and generate an environment of hope and opportunity.
Civil rights and social justice organizations have come to understand that collective action on a national basis is required to stop child incarceration and challenge the immoral process which perpetuates an unjust justice system. These groups are working under extremely difficult circumstances and many of them with little or no resources. The Gathering is a national movement that creates a coordinated space to 1) fortify relationships between regional groups, 2) support local endeavors and 3) enhance the ongoing organizing of non-violent direct action training. Central to its mission is strengthening our moral environment.
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Civil rights and social justice organizations have come to understand that collective action on a national basis is required to stop child incarceration and challenge the immoral process which perpetuates an unjust justice system. These groups are working under extremely difficult circumstances and many of them with little or no resources. The Gathering is a national movement that creates a coordinated space to 1) fortify relationships between regional groups, 2) support local endeavors and 3) enhance the ongoing organizing of non-violent direct action training. Central to its mission is strengthening our moral environment.
- “a project of tides center” -
"The Gathering" is a project of Tides Center 501c3
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