From Worker's World - Betsey Piette
According to federal charges against ex-Judges Michael T. Conahan and Mark A. Ciavarella Jr., while presiding over juvenile court the pair took kickbacks from the owner and builder of two private detention centers. In exchange, the judges closed a county-run detention facility in 2002. To keep the private centers busy, for over five years they handed down harsh sentences to nearly 4,000 children as young as 10, largely for minor offences.
Former Luzerne County (Pennsylvania) Court Judge Mark A. Ciavarella Jr. found guilty for racketeering
Convicted on 12 of the 39 counts he faced, Ciavarella faces a minimum sentence of 13 years up to a maximum of 157 years in prison under federal sentencing guidelines. Additionally, he faces a class-action lawsuit on behalf of the youths’ families.
The Federal jury agreed with prosecutors that Ciavarella and Michael Conahan, another judge, had taken an illegal payment of nearly $1 million from a juvenile detention center's builder and then hidden the money.
They also found Ciavarella guilty of "honest services mail fraud" and of being a tax cheat for failing to list that money and more on his annual public financial-disclosure forms and on four years of tax returns. In addition, they found him guilty of conspiring to launder money.
Mr. "Zero Tolerance"
Worker's World column continued...
The kids-for-cash scandal was fueled by the growing practice of school officials calling police for minor offenses. Numerous incidents have surfaced across the U.S. of children as young as 6 being arrested simply for bringing a pair of scissors — now considered a “weapon” — to school.
Is this what it's going to take for us to have a discussion of the "prisons for profit" industry and the grotesque co-mingling of corporate profits and justice?
Follow link to the full story, including truly horrifying accounts of what passed for justice in Ciavarella's court. Kids for cash - via Worker's World
Some examples of Mr. "Zero Tolerance" Judge Ciavarella ideas of how the juvenile justice system should treat "offenders":
> An 11-year-old led away in leg shackles when his parents could not afford to pay a $488 fine.
> A six-month sentence on a teenager who was seen giving the finger to a police officer.
> A 15-year-old was jailed for creating a parody MySpace page that poked fun at an assistant principal.
UPDATE: The two "for profit" juvenile detention facilities involved are: PA Child Care LLC, and sister company, Western Pennsylvania Child Care. Both are owned by Greg Zappala, brother of Allegheny County District Attorney Stephen A. Zappala Jr. and son of former state Supreme Court Chief Justice Stephen A. Zappala Sr.