The Cellar - PA judges lock up teens for kickbacks

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PA judges lock up teens for kickbacks

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/29142654/

Quote:

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.

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.

The opening is a picture of a girl who was "sentenced to a wilderness camp for building a spoof MySpace page that lampooned her assistant principal."

OK, my idea is, these two judges go to prison and go into a special section, specifically filled with people they sentenced.

Rounding up the unsavory and putting them into your buddies' for-profit prison? It simply couldn't get any worse. I want their bollocks.

It is amazing. This is stuff you would have thought you read about back in the 70's when no one was looking.

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.

These buggers better do time.

I wonder when the mob angle will surface?

Unbelievable - Get everything they own and sell it all with the proceeds going to these kids. Everything.

It's all about the money these days.

Uh huh these days, here we go again.

I lived in Scranton back in the 60s. The level of corruption in that town would make an Illinois governor blush. Its been that way for a long, long time.

I misread the thread title.
I was wondering how on earth teenagers were managing to get kickbacks so young.

This is really the worst. When you have corruption like this, I think life in prison is a fair sentence. Actually, they should go back and calculate the total time these guys incarcerated all the kids for and double it and lock them up for that long.

Well stated glattster.

OH hell, I'm in a mood - lets just kill these assholes too!

:lol:

I'll help...I'm in a mood too!

ALLENTOWN, Pa. (AP) - A lawsuit has been filed against two Pennsylvania judges accused of taking more than $2 million in kickbacks to send youth offenders to privately run detention centers. The suit names Luzerne County Judges Mark Ciavarella and Michael Conahan and 14 other defendants. It was filed in federal court late Thursday on behalf of hundreds of children and their families who were alleged victims of the corruption.
http://apnews.myway.com/article/20090213/D96ATN8G0.html

Quote:

Originally Posted by busterb (Post 534222)

The cool thing about this is that criminal cases need to be brought by the state. This means that the old boy network can allow a plea down to nothing. Civil actions, on the other hand, are brought by attorneys who actually work for the victim.

Even if these guys only end up doing 6 months, they're going to lose everything.

Clearly there is civil rights violations, doesn't that come under federal jurisdiction?