Corrupt Judge - Kids Pay - Tilted Forum Project Discussion Community

genuinegirly · 02-23-2009, 12:41 PM

Quote:

Pennsylvania rocked by 'jailing kids for cash' scandal

By Stephanie Chen
CNN

(CNN) -- At a friend's sleepover more than a year ago, 14-year-old Phillip Swartley pocketed change from unlocked vehicles in the neighborhood to buy chips and soft drinks. The cops caught him.

There was no need for an attorney, said Phillip's mother, Amy Swartley, who thought at most, the judge would slap her son with a fine or community service.

But she was shocked to find her eighth-grader handcuffed and shackled in the courtroom and sentenced to a youth detention center. Then, he was shipped to a boarding school for troubled teens for nine months.

"Yes, my son made a mistake, but I didn't think he was going to be taken away from me," said Swartley, a 41-year-old single mother raising two boys in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania.

CNN does not usually identify minors accused of crimes. But Swartley and others agreed to be named to bring public attention to the issue.

As scandals from Wall Street to Washington roil the public trust, the justice system in Luzerne County, in the heart of Pennsylvania's struggling coal country, has also fallen prey to corruption. The county has been rocked by a kickback scandal involving two elected judges who essentially jailed kids for cash. Many of the children had appeared before judges without a lawyer.

The nonprofit Juvenile Law Center in Philadelphia said Phillip is one of at least 5,000 children over the past five years who appeared before former Luzerne County President Judge Mark Ciavarella.

Ciavarella pleaded guilty earlier this month to federal criminal charges of fraud and other tax charges, according to the U.S. attorney's office. Former Luzerne County Senior Judge Michael Conahan also pleaded guilty to the same charges. The two secretly received more than $2.6 million, prosecutors said.

The judges have been disbarred and have resigned from their elected positions. They agreed to serve 87 months in prison under their plea deals. Ciavarella and Conahan did not return calls, and their attorneys told CNN that they have no comment.

Ciavarella, 58, along with Conahan, 56, corruptly and fraudulently "created the potential for an increased number of juvenile offenders to be sent to juvenile detention facilities," federal court documents alleged. Children would be placed in private detention centers, under contract with the court, to increase the head count. In exchange, the two judges would receive kickbacks.

The Juvenile Law Center said it plans to file a class-action lawsuit this week representing what they say are victims of corruption. Juvenile Law Center attorneys cite a few examples of harsh penalties Judge Ciavarella meted out for relatively petty offenses:

Ciavarvella sent 15-year-old Hillary Transue to a wilderness camp for mocking an assistant principal on a MySpace page.

He whisked 13-year-old Shane Bly, who was accused of trespassing in a vacant building, from his parents and confined him in a boot camp for two weekends.

He sentenced Kurt Kruger, 17, to detention and five months of boot camp for helping a friend steal DVDs from Wal-Mart.
Several other lawsuits on behalf of the juveniles who have appeared in Ciavarella's courtroom have emerged.

The private juvenile detention centers, owned by Mid Atlantic Youth Services Corp., are still operating and are not a target of the federal investigation, according court documents. The company cooperated in the investigation, the documents said.

A spokesman from the company denied that its current owner, Gregory Zappala, knew about the kickbacks.

Ciavarella assured the community that he could provide justice. Elected to the bench in 1996, he once ran for judge on the promise that he would punish "people who break the law," according to local reports.

The corruption began in 2002, when Conahan shut down the state juvenile detention center and used money from the Luzerne County budget to fund a multimillion-dollar lease for the private facilities. Despite some raised eyebrows from the community, county commissioners approved the deal.

The federal government began investigating in 2006.

"It's been a dark cloud hanging over the county for a very, very long time," said Luzerne County Commissioner Maryanne C. Petrilla, whose office approved the judges' budgets during the corruption. "I'm looking forward to the ship turning around now and us moving in the right direction."

The kickback scandal highlights a major problem in the juvenile justice system in Luzerne County and across the country, attorneys say. They say hundreds of children who appeared before Ciavarella didn't have lawyers.

"Kids think very much in the present, and they have limited abilities to understand long-term consequences," said Robin Dahlberg, an attorney at the American Civil Liberties Union in New York who specializes in juvenile issues.

Dahlberg's recent study in Ohio revealed that some of the counties had as many as 90 percent of children going through the court system without a lawyer.

"This Pennsylvania case is a sad reminder of why kids need an attorney," she said.

A 1967 Supreme Court ruling says children have a right to counsel. However, many states allow children and their parents to appear without an attorney by completing a waiver.

Pennsylvania is among about half of thestates in the country that allow waivers to be signed for juveniles to appear before a judge without an attorney, legal experts say.

In Luzerne County, teens who waived counsel were at greater risk of being sent to placement center than those with representation.

About 50 percent of the children who waived counsel before Ciavarella were sent to some kind of placement, the Philadelphia-based Juvenile Law Center reports. In comparison, the Juvenile Court Judges' Commission in Pennsylvania found that 8.4 percent of juveniles across the state wind up in placement.

"When you have this many kids waiving counsel, then that's way out of line," said Marsha Levick, an attorney at the Juvenile Law Center. "There was no record [Ciavarella] was assuring the child and parent about the consequences of not having representation."

Minors charged with nonviolent crimes were often given harsher sentences than what probation officers recommended, court documents say. Other investigators say the trials lasted a few minutes at most.

All four of the teens cited in this story say they appeared before Ciavarella without lawyers.

"I was sort of shocked and taken aback," Hillary Transue, the MySpace offender who is now 17, said of her experience in Ciavarella's courtroom in April 2007. "I didn't really understand what was going on."

The Juvenile Law Center says it first red-flagged Ciavarella in 1999 after discovering that a 13-year-old boy was detained without being read his rights and had appeared in court without a lawyer. When the case became public, Ciavarella promised the public that every minor in his courtroom would have a lawyer.

Judges must verbally explain the consequences of appearing in court without counsel to minors and parents, lawyers say. Juvenile Law Center officials say Ciavarella neglected to do so in many cases.

Yet in the past five years, attorneys, law enforcement officials and other judges did not report Ciavarella's behavior to the Judicial Conduct Board of Pennsylvania, says Joseph A. Massa Jr., chief counsel at the board.

Privatizing detention facilities is a growing in popularity among governments because the companies say they offer lower rates than the state.

Pennsylvania has the second highest number of private facilities after Florida, accounting for about 11 percent of the private facilities in the United States, according to the National Center for Juvenile Justice in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

Critics say private prisons lack transparency because they don't go through the same inspections and audits as a state facility, and this may have allowed payoffs to go so long without being noticed.

"Once somebody is going to make more money by holding more kids, there is a pretty good predictable profit motive," said criminal justice consultant Judith Greene, who heads a nonprofit group called Justice Strategies. "It's predictable that companies are going to tolerate certain behaviors they shouldn't."

An audit draft obtained by the Philadelphia Inquirer showed that Luzerne County was spending more than $1.2 million in expenses that weren't allowed under state regulations. The Pennsylvania Department of Public Welfare, the agency overseeing the audits, says the audit drafts are not final.

The audits also allege that two people paid the judges. Attorneys for former Mid-Atlantic owner Robert Powell say that their client is one of those people but that he was pressured by the judges to make payments. The attorneys say Powell never offered to pay the judges, never sought to influence any juvenile case and is now cooperating with the investigation. Zappala and Powell were partners until Zappala bought out Powell in 2008.

Senior Judge Arthur E. Grim of Berks County is reviewing the cases for minors who appeared before Ciavarella. Court officials say some children may have their records expunged or be granted new hearings.

The Philadelphia Bar Association has expressed outrage, assuring the public that the rest of the judges on the state's bench are "composed of highly qualified, honorable and honest people, who take their responsibilities to the public very seriously."

But some of the children -- many who, like Phillip Swartley, are now young adults -- have become jaded and believe that their cases were tainted in Ciavarella's courtroom.

After being sent to boarding school, Phillip, now 15, became withdrawn and depressed, his mother says.

"What do these kids see of the legal system and of authority figures?" Amy Swartley asked. "These kids see people who abuse their power. Now, we have a whole county and generation of children who have lost trust in the system."

Ok. I'm not sure how to respond to this article. I'm outraged and bothered. I need some time to stew over my response. In the meantime, I'd like to throw it out there for you folks to tackle. Maybe some of you will have some answers to the many questions I feel like asking. I'm not very familiar with the inner-workings of the US judicial system.
Is there some form of auditing process to make sure judges are not abusing their power?
Does someone sit there and run statistics, trying to figure out if a judge is showing undue bias?
Who is in charge of appointing judges from state to state, and does it take a scandal such as this to become disbarred?

Rekna · 02-23-2009, 03:13 PM

I read this a few weeks ago and it made me sick. This is another example of where privatization of institutions that serve the public good can go horribly wrong. The problem with privatization of this type of institution is there motive moves from rehabilitation to profit. The more people they get in their system the more money they make. This whole thing reminds me of the movies death race and the condemned.

Glory's Sun · 02-23-2009, 03:45 PM

it would appear that PA is not a kid friendly state.. and we all know what I'm referencing in that..

it's quite sad.. our justice system is so full of crap.

matthew330 · 02-23-2009, 05:26 PM

Ciavarvella sent 15-year-old Hillary Transue to a wilderness camp for mocking an assistant principal on a MySpace page.

Wilderness camp? Who's upset by this? she's only "shocked and upset", and if she's that shocked and upset she won't do it again. Let's see what happens.

He whisked 13-year-old Shane Bly, who was accused of trespassing in a vacant building, from his parents and confined him in a boot camp for two weekends.

"whisked away for two weekends"........... okay, his mother is doing him no favors by feeding into his PSTD over a 2 weekend punishment for breaking the law, which we can assume was probably more than setting one foot over a "no trespassing sign. As the article mentioned, kids live in the moment. Tell him he got what he deserved and move on.

He sentenced Kurt Kruger, 17, to detention and five months of boot camp for helping a friend steal DVDs from Wal-Mart.
Several other lawsuits on behalf of the juveniles who have appeared in Ciavarella's courtroom have emerged.

What's the problem? He's a thief, maybe he won't be one when he's 18. He should thank the system for helping him in time.

What do kid friednly states do?

snowy · 02-23-2009, 05:54 PM

matthew, do you know anyone who has been sent to a wilderness program? I do, and though he makes light of what happened, ten years later the experience still profoundly effects who he is. It made him a violent sleeper, for one. It robbed him of his senior year of high school, for two, and he wasn't able to participate in all of the things his other friends were.

Mocking an assistant principal on a MySpace page shouldn't be punished this way, even if it's libelous. It's too heavyhanded.

As it was said in the article, and as it has already been said elsewhere, adolescents and teens cannot conceive of the consequences within a grander context. In simple terms, they don't see the big picture. I'm not arguing that there shouldn't be consequences, but the consequences should be reasonable. Community service is a very reasonable, positive consequence.

I'm not sure what we can do about such corruption, or if it's widespread. I certainly hope it isn't. That would be very disheartening. Admittedly, our juvenile justice system is already all sorts of fucked.

Glory's Sun · 02-23-2009, 05:56 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by matthew330

Ciavarvella sent 15-year-old Hillary Transue to a wilderness camp for mocking an assistant principal on a MySpace page.

Wilderness camp? Who's upset by this? she's only "shocked and upset", and if she's that shocked and upset she won't do it again. Let's see what happens.

He whisked 13-year-old Shane Bly, who was accused of trespassing in a vacant building, from his parents and confined him in a boot camp for two weekends.

"whisked away for two weekends"........... okay, his mother is doing him no favors by feeding into his PSTD over a 2 weekend punishment for breaking the law, which we can assume was probably more than setting one foot over a "no trespassing sign. As the article mentioned, kids live in the moment. Tell him he got what he deserved and move on.

He sentenced Kurt Kruger, 17, to detention and five months of boot camp for helping a friend steal DVDs from Wal-Mart.
Several other lawsuits on behalf of the juveniles who have appeared in Ciavarella's courtroom have emerged.

What's the problem? He's a thief, maybe he won't be one when he's 18. He should thank the system for helping him in time.

What do kid friednly states do?

did you miss this part?

Quote:

Ciavarella, 58, along with Conahan, 56, corruptly and fraudulently "created the potential for an increased number of juvenile offenders to be sent to juvenile detention facilities," federal court documents alleged. Children would be placed in private detention centers, under contract with the court, to increase the head count. In exchange, the two judges would receive kickbacks.

Forget the kid friendly comment I made.. no matter who or what age this would have happened to it's completely immoral by the standard judges are supposed to hold, as well as it completely undermines any chance of having faith in a justice system. What justice is served when a judge does not look at a case properly and is only concerned with how much money they will get for putting the child in some camp?

matthew330 · 02-23-2009, 06:14 PM

snowy, how do you know that experience, which he makes light of, makes him a violent sleeper.....10 years later. How long was he there, what happened to him there? Fill in those little details which you evidently know, before you tell me he was at a wildnerness camp with 10 years of violent sleeping before you expect me to take that reference in the article to wilderness camp seriously (or anyone else for that matter).

And your senior year in high school, really doesn't set the stage for the rest of your life....unless your Napoleon Dynamite's cousin, in which case, if it helps, he probably wouldn't have made the pro's anyway.

Guccliver, I guess I missed the part where the judges handed out clearly draconian punishments because they were making a few extra bucks. You connected A to G, and forgot b,c,d,e, and f.

Xerxys · 02-23-2009, 06:24 PM

matthew330, dude, I have to disagree with you.

These camps and detention facilities ... you have no idea. And for what, shoplifting, mocking a principle? Man, community service all the way.

Glory's Sun · 02-23-2009, 06:25 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by matthew330

snowy, how do you know that experience, which he makes light of, makes him a violent sleeper.....10 years later. How long was he there, what happened to him there? Fill in those little details which you evidently know, before you tell me he was at a wildnerness camp with 10 years of violent sleeping before you expect me to take that reference in the article to wilderness camp seriously (or anyone else for that matter).

And your senior year in high school, really doesn't set the stage for the rest of your life....unless your Napoleon Dynamite's cousin, in which case, if it helps, he probably wouldn't have made the pro's anyway.

Guccliver, I guess I missed the part where the judges handed out clearly draconian punishments because they were making a few extra bucks. You connected A to G, and forgot b,c,d,e, and f.

ok well connect the dots for me then... since I seem to be missing out on so many.

Or perhaps it's you who is missing the dots, considering that you are sitting here defending the actions of judges who have done not only their position a great disservice, but the community and the system as well. You are assuming and clearly skipping multiple dots along the way that these kids were going to continue in some sort of crime spree and end up in prison anyway. So really.. who here is missing the dots? The way I see it, you're missing the whole picture..not just the dots.

and by the way.. it's not gucciliver.. but thanks anyway.

matthew330 · 02-23-2009, 06:34 PM

Xerxys, one went for two weekends. Two weekends. that's it. If they're that bad, shouldn't this thread be about how bad they are... for even just two lonely weekends away from your miserable controlling parents.

And let me go shoplifting at wallmart, or "help" my friends shoplift at wallmart as the case may be (sounds better doesn't it), and maybe I'll come tell you what real "camp" is all about. If only I were 17.

---------- Post added at 02:34 AM ---------- Previous post was at 02:30 AM ----------

Can you tell me what happened to him G-U-C-C-I-L-V-R?
(whew, almost put a e between the v and r)

Glory's Sun · 02-23-2009, 06:35 PM

This thread has nothing really to do with the punishments handed out as much as it does with the fact that the judges routinely sentenced children to these punishments for the sole purpose of gaining money. That's it.. there it is in black and white. We can extend it to the punishment level, but the main point still remains that they merely did this for monetary gain..which is immoral by any stretch of the imagination for someone with as much power as a judge holds. So spare the "these kids don't know how easy they have it" crap..and instead focus on what the real issue is.

matthew330 · 02-23-2009, 06:53 PM

Game point match.

Tully Mars · 02-23-2009, 07:57 PM

Game point what?

Corruption is corruption.

dc_dux · 02-23-2009, 08:56 PM

This was a colossal failure of the judicial system in Pa.

The judge was elected, not appointed, which is common at that level...so the public bears some responsibility for returning this guy to office repeatedly.. It looks like he was on the bench since 1996. But judges are one of the those elections on the ballot that most voters probably ignore.

The greater failure falls on the Judicial Conduct Board of PA.

Where the hell were they for the last six years?

genuinegirly · 02-24-2009, 08:17 AM

thank you, dc_dux, for pointing me in the direction of the judicial conduct board of PA. I was hoping some sort of check system was in place.

I suppose the question to ask now isn't why they didn't pick up on it. Rather, how do they fix their system so they catch such trends in the future.

SSJTWIZTA · 02-24-2009, 11:19 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by dc_dux

The judge was elected, not appointed, which is common at that level...so the public bears some responsibility for returning this guy to office repeatedly..

i know you're supposed to elect the judges, but how many people really look into that sort of thing? maybe its something important that most of my generation is neglecting to read into and vote on. 'tis a shame.

Anormalguy · 02-24-2009, 12:12 PM

"...The private juvenile detention centers, owned by Mid Atlantic Youth Services Corp., are still operating and are not a target of the federal investigation, according court documents. The company cooperated in the investigation, the documents said...."

Does anybody else find the above-listed comment disturbing?

What happened to the 2.6 million dollars the two judges pocketed?

Getting sent to wilderness camp for mocking an assistant principal on a MySpace page?!?! How did that wind up in court in the first place?

It seems that there are many individuals and agencies that knew someting was wrong, yet did nothing.

02-23-2009, 05:54 PM	#5 (permalink)
snowy Kick Ass Kunoichi Location: Oregon	matthew, do you know anyone who has been sent to a wilderness program? I do, and though he makes light of what happened, ten years later the experience still profoundly effects who he is. It made him a violent sleeper, for one. It robbed him of his senior year of high school, for two, and he wasn't able to participate in all of the things his other friends were. Mocking an assistant principal on a MySpace page shouldn't be punished this way, even if it's libelous. It's too heavyhanded. As it was said in the article, and as it has already been said elsewhere, adolescents and teens cannot conceive of the consequences within a grander context. In simple terms, they don't see the big picture. I'm not arguing that there shouldn't be consequences, but the consequences should be reasonable. Community service is a very reasonable, positive consequence. I'm not sure what we can do about such corruption, or if it's widespread. I certainly hope it isn't. That would be very disheartening. Admittedly, our juvenile justice system is already all sorts of fucked. __________________ If I am not better, at least I am different. --Jean-Jacques Rousseau

02-23-2009, 07:57 PM	#13 (permalink)
Tully Mars Living in a Warmer Insanity Super Moderator Location: Yucatan, Mexico	Game point what? Corruption is corruption. __________________ I used to drink to drown my sorrows, but the damned things have learned how to swim- Frida Kahlo Vice President Starkizzer Fan Club

02-23-2009, 08:56 PM	#14 (permalink)
dc_dux Location: Washington DC	This was a colossal failure of the judicial system in Pa. The judge was elected, not appointed, which is common at that level...so the public bears some responsibility for returning this guy to office repeatedly.. It looks like he was on the bench since 1996. But judges are one of the those elections on the ballot that most voters probably ignore. The greater failure falls on the Judicial Conduct Board of PA. Where the hell were they for the last six years? __________________ "The perfect is the enemy of the good." ~ Voltaire

02-24-2009, 08:17 AM	#15 (permalink)
genuinegirly Eat your vegetables Super Moderator Location: Arabidopsis-ville	thank you, dc_dux, for pointing me in the direction of the judicial conduct board of PA. I was hoping some sort of check system was in place. I suppose the question to ask now isn't why they didn't pick up on it. Rather, how do they fix their system so they catch such trends in the future. __________________ "Sometimes I have to remember that things are brought to me for a reason, either for my own lessons or for the benefit of others." Cynthetiq "violence is no more or less real than non-violence." roachboy

02-24-2009, 12:12 PM	#17 (permalink)
Anormalguy After School Special Moralist Location: Large City, Texas.	"...The private juvenile detention centers, owned by Mid Atlantic Youth Services Corp., are still operating and are not a target of the federal investigation, according court documents. The company cooperated in the investigation, the documents said...." Does anybody else find the above-listed comment disturbing? What happened to the 2.6 million dollars the two judges pocketed? Getting sent to wilderness camp for mocking an assistant principal on a MySpace page?!?! How did that wind up in court in the first place? It seems that there are many individuals and agencies that knew someting was wrong, yet did nothing. __________________ In a society where the individual is not free to pursue the truth...there is neither progress, stability nor security.--Edward R. Murrow

02-23-2009, 03:13 PM	#2 (permalink)
Rekna Junkie	I read this a few weeks ago and it made me sick. This is another example of where privatization of institutions that serve the public good can go horribly wrong. The problem with privatization of this type of institution is there motive moves from rehabilitation to profit. The more people they get in their system the more money they make. This whole thing reminds me of the movies death race and the condemned.

02-23-2009, 03:45 PM	#3 (permalink)
Glory's Sun Registered User	it would appear that PA is not a kid friendly state.. and we all know what I'm referencing in that.. it's quite sad.. our justice system is so full of crap.

02-23-2009, 05:26 PM	#4 (permalink)
matthew330 Banned	Ciavarvella sent 15-year-old Hillary Transue to a wilderness camp for mocking an assistant principal on a MySpace page. Wilderness camp? Who's upset by this? she's only "shocked and upset", and if she's that shocked and upset she won't do it again. Let's see what happens. He whisked 13-year-old Shane Bly, who was accused of trespassing in a vacant building, from his parents and confined him in a boot camp for two weekends. "whisked away for two weekends"........... okay, his mother is doing him no favors by feeding into his PSTD over a 2 weekend punishment for breaking the law, which we can assume was probably more than setting one foot over a "no trespassing sign. As the article mentioned, kids live in the moment. Tell him he got what he deserved and move on. He sentenced Kurt Kruger, 17, to detention and five months of boot camp for helping a friend steal DVDs from Wal-Mart. Several other lawsuits on behalf of the juveniles who have appeared in Ciavarella's courtroom have emerged. What's the problem? He's a thief, maybe he won't be one when he's 18. He should thank the system for helping him in time. What do kid friednly states do?

02-23-2009, 06:14 PM	#7 (permalink)
matthew330 Banned	snowy, how do you know that experience, which he makes light of, makes him a violent sleeper.....10 years later. How long was he there, what happened to him there? Fill in those little details which you evidently know, before you tell me he was at a wildnerness camp with 10 years of violent sleeping before you expect me to take that reference in the article to wilderness camp seriously (or anyone else for that matter). And your senior year in high school, really doesn't set the stage for the rest of your life....unless your Napoleon Dynamite's cousin, in which case, if it helps, he probably wouldn't have made the pro's anyway. Guccliver, I guess I missed the part where the judges handed out clearly draconian punishments because they were making a few extra bucks. You connected A to G, and forgot b,c,d,e, and f.

02-23-2009, 06:24 PM	#8 (permalink)
Xerxys Junkie Location: My head.	matthew330, dude, I have to disagree with you. These camps and detention facilities ... you have no idea. And for what, shoplifting, mocking a principle? Man, community service all the way.

02-23-2009, 06:34 PM	#10 (permalink)
matthew330 Banned	Xerxys, one went for two weekends. Two weekends. that's it. If they're that bad, shouldn't this thread be about how bad they are... for even just two lonely weekends away from your miserable controlling parents. And let me go shoplifting at wallmart, or "help" my friends shoplift at wallmart as the case may be (sounds better doesn't it), and maybe I'll come tell you what real "camp" is all about. If only I were 17. ---------- Post added at 02:34 AM ---------- Previous post was at 02:30 AM ---------- Can you tell me what happened to him G-U-C-C-I-L-V-R? (whew, almost put a e between the v and r)

02-23-2009, 06:35 PM	#11 (permalink)
Glory's Sun Registered User	This thread has nothing really to do with the punishments handed out as much as it does with the fact that the judges routinely sentenced children to these punishments for the sole purpose of gaining money. That's it.. there it is in black and white. We can extend it to the punishment level, but the main point still remains that they merely did this for monetary gain..which is immoral by any stretch of the imagination for someone with as much power as a judge holds. So spare the "these kids don't know how easy they have it" crap..and instead focus on what the real issue is.

02-23-2009, 06:53 PM	#12 (permalink)
matthew330 Banned	Game point match.