Crooked Judges Sent Kids To Jail For Cash

February 12. 2009

Crooked judges in Pennsylvania have been sending teens to jail without a proper trial, as apart of a kickback scheme with juvenile detention centers. How awful.

The teens that appeared before said judges were given trials that lasted a minute or two. That is infuriating.  How many innocent kids got caught up in and harmed by this disgraceful judicial scheme.

The dirty judges involved should face prison on civil rights, fraud and false imprisonment charges. They misused public office for financial gain.

Pa. judges accused of jailing kids for cash

Feb 11, 4:59 PM (ET) - WILKES-BARRE, Pa. (AP) - 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...

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