The Associated Press reported today:
A former juvenile court judge defiantly insisted he never accepted money for sending large numbers of children to detention centers even after he was convicted of racketeering for taking a $1 million kickback from the builder of the for-profit lockups.
Former Luzerne County Judge Mark Ciavarella was allowed to remain free pending sentencing following his conviction Friday in what prosecutors said was a “kids for cash” scheme that ranks among the biggest courtroom frauds in U.S. history.
As the judge left the courthouse today, he was confronted by the mother of one of the boys he had sentenced to a detention facility on a charge of possession of drug paraphernalia. The boy had committed suicide, an act his mother attributes to the trauma of his detention. The video of that confrontation got a lot of airplay today, and the judge was demonized.
The judges actions were inexcusable and the mother’s reactions completely understandable. He deserves the harshest sentence possible. Such scandals are inevitable in a system in which the government turns the means of administering justice over to private entities.
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When prisons, reform schools, detention and criminal rehabilitation centers or any similar institutions are administered by private entities, those who run them will have an interest in getting as many people as possible into them, and keeping them in them as long as possible. They will begin lobbying legislatures to impose stricter penalties, trying to influence judges to pass down longer, stricter sentences, and parole boards to keep prisoners in longer. Each day someone is in their facility, they are compensated. The will seek to maximize profits by reducing costs. There are not many ways to this other than reducing what is spent taking care of prisoners. Corners can be cut on education, rehabilitation programs, food and health care in order to save a dime or two.
Prisoners are unlikely to advocates that will plead their cause, so the likelihood of the private entities that run juvenile reform schools or prisons getting away with their unscrupulous behavior or inhumane treatment is high.
Judge Ciavarella violated the public’s trust and in doing so he undoubtedly did irreparable damage to the lives and psyche of many young people. But it was a system that allowed it and we need to look at that, as well.
It’s common sense: If the institution is private and relies on warm bodies to gain profit, it’s easy to make the jump from that to paying judges to sentence youths. It’s disgusting and this judge needs to rot in prison for a very long time. How can sentencing for first time shoplifters, etc. be a stint in a juvenile center, when repeat offender drunk driver, murderers, rapists, pedophiles, get less than the optimum sentence? What’s wrong with our counrty?