Former Judge Is on Trial in ‘Cash for Kids’ Scheme

[madinmaryland]

SCRANTON, Pa. — A former Pennsylvania judge went on trial in federal court on Tuesday, charged with racketeering, bribery and extortion in what prosecutors say was a $2.8 million scheme to send juvenile delinquents to privately run prisons.

The case against the judge, Mark A. Ciavarella Jr., who presided in Luzerne County, drew national attention for what legal experts say is a dangerous gap in the juvenile justice systems of many states — children appearing in court without lawyers.

Mr. Ciavarella, now 60, sentenced thousands of young people, funneling them into two private detention centers prosecutors say were run by his friends who slipped him payments in a “cash for kids” scheme.

Few of the young people had lawyers, a chronic problem that legal scholars say makes guilty pleas more likely, saddling them with criminal records. The state has since expunged more than 6,000 records of youths Mr. Ciavarella sentenced, some for crimes as small as stealing a can of nutmeg.

Read more: http://www.nytimes.com/2011/02/09/us/09judge.html?_r=1&hpw

I hope the SOB spends the rest of his life in jail.

:mad:

[Poll_Blind]

1. See this is the tip of the ice berg, IMO, and really scary. When judges have a financial...

...interest in sending you to a privately run prison because of kickbacks, you can kiss everything you every thought about living in a free country goodbye. You don't even need a dictator running the country. If you have judges who are on the take from prisons...the whole country is fucked.

PB

[Vinnie From Indy]

2. privatizing the taking away of freedom will ALWAYS result in

less freedom. The profit motive knows no morality.

[varkam]

3. Wow -- I'm surprised this is just now coming to trial.

I guess they had to wait a while before they could get a fair and impartial jury. That entire spectacle was a perfect example of what happens when corrections is privatized. The introduction of the profit motive into the corrections system is fundamentally at odds with the goals of corrections in a democratic society.

[Marblehead]

4. sorta like

doctors who get kick backs from drug companies, only much more heinous

[jp11]

5. Capitalism the profit motive!

[ChoppinBroccoli]

6. Every Time I Hear About A Judge Being On Trial.............

............I think of this Monty Python sketch. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DJpY7eT6oNk

"How can you find someone Not Esther Williams?"

[duhneece]

7. I'm opposed to the death penalty, but if I weren't....

That judge is a monster.