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Judge to serve 28 years after making $2 million sending children to jail
- deleted 13y ago[deleted]
- nokya 13y agoThey forgot the best part: 1) Statistical analysis of the children's ethnicity and religion. Where is it? 2) What about the personnel working in the prisons? Where they all completely unaware of that situation? 3) Private prisons are State-financed. Translation: money was taken from the pockets of US citizens to make sure these children would not have any chance of a bright future. Meanwhile, in the USA...
- argumentum 13y agoI've been following this case for a while .. extremely disturbing situation and the sentences were far too light for many of the offending parties, such as the builder of the facility who bribed the judges. Just imagine how it must have felt to be one of the kids. It's sick, really. It seems that if you hide behind corporate structures and contracts you can transform the nature of charges against your actions. In this case, the offenses committed involved enslaving children for personal financial gain. If there is any offense worse than that, please inform.
- rayiner 13y agoThe judges received long sentences for their involvement. Robert Powell, co-owner of the facility and Robert Mericle, the developer who built the facilities, only pled guilty to failing to report a felony, failing to disclose money paid as a finders' fee, and conspiracy to tax evasion. They face one to three years each, but those sentences are consistent with the felonies to which they pled guilty. The plea deal is light for the two developers probably because the prosecutor didn't have as much evidence to pin on them, and because they needed their cooperation to get the judges. Remember, news articles about a crime are not admissible as the factual record in a trial. Just because it's obvious from a news article exactly what happened does not mean that the prosecutor didn't need to bargain for certain peoples' cooperation to bring all those facts to light.
- deleted 13y ago[deleted]
- deleted 13y ago[deleted]
- lifeisstillgood 13y agoIt was meant to be somewhere between satire and horror that this could happen in a civilised society. It failed quite badly. Deleting. Edit: My original comment said use the NSA / anti terror apparatus against the child slavers in Lousiana. The sheer scale and obvious uses of those program's has managed to have such an impact that a once liberal Brit now can make off handed comments that evidence from torture and illegal surveillance is ok. No matter what happens, the sheer existence of those program's has changed the debate on them. Curious.
- argumentum 13y agofailing to disclose money paid as a finders' fee Umm .. they paid bribes to judges to enslave children. This isn't some tech startup recruiting employees.
- rayiner 13y agoRobert Powell claims the judges extorted him: http://www.boston.com/news/nation/articles/2011/11/04/ex_owner_of_pa_youth_lockups_gets_18_months http://www.boston.com/news/nation/articles/2011/11/04/ex_own.... It sounds ridiculous, but remember, the standard of proof at a criminal trial is "beyond a reasonable doubt." In a situation like this with four people pointing fingers at each other, giving the owners a plea deal probably ensured the prosecutors' ability to get the judges.
- argumentum 13y agoBtw, I agree with you regarding why this outcome was reached. Doesn't change it being an unjust outcome. From the article you linked .. "Even though they were in positions of power and influence, I had the ultimate ability to do the right thing and say no. I was wrong for giving in and paying them and will forever bear the burden of having done so," he [Robert Powell] wrote. Whether or not they "extorted" him (though he still managed to profit in the millions), doesn't change the seriousness of what he did .. which was to enslave children.
- icn2 13y agoThis is why I always object monetizing public services.
- patmcguire 13y agoI've not seen on a single story related to this about the actual bribers: they just name the company, but don't press criminal charges against individuals, or even sue the company? How is that an appropriate response?
- sp332 13y agoThe big news: Once Ciavarella was convicted, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court tossed out 4,000 convictions issued by the judge. Will the kids or their families get any restitution for wrongful imprisonment?
- rayiner 13y agoPennsylvania has no wrongful imprisonment statute: http://www.cnn.com/interactive/2012/03/us/table.wrongful.convictions http://www.cnn.com/interactive/2012/03/us/table.wrongful.con.... See: http://www.innocenceproject.org/Content/Compensating_The_Wrongly_Convicted.php http://www.innocenceproject.org/Content/Compensating_The_Wro....
- Dylan16807 13y agoAre they immune from being sued? Is such an immunity definitely constitutional?
- at-fates-hands 13y agoI would assume lawyers would look at other remedies such as lost wages, emotional distress, and other factors to seek a civil trial to get proper compensation.
- rayiner 13y agoThe states have sovereign immunity (they can only be sued by the federal government, other states, or when they consent to be sued). State sovereign immunity dates to the common law, but was explicitly affirmed by the 11th amendment.
- MaysonL 13y agoPerhaps DOJ should consider suing Pennsylvania for civil rights violation?
- HarryHirsch 13y agoSovereign immunity ("the King can do no wrong") is a very strange doctrine. One would have thought that notion would have gone out of the window when they beheaded Charles I, but somehow it has a strong foothold in the US. In most civilized countries it does not.
- mmanfrin 13y agoIt is an absolute travesty that PA Child Care, the people paying the bribes, have had hardly a punishment at all.
- Zimahl 13y agoI'm sure they'll be included with the state and judge in a class-action case to be filed shorty (if not already).
- apalmer 13y agoNo, really Yes but No... I dont think that if your corporation purposefully bribes judges to imprison children for profit, i dont think a civil court fine is sufficient. These guys should be going to jail for decades.
- a3n 13y agoThere should be a corporate death penalty that actually gets used. There it will be less likely that any individual would feel "incented" to do shit like this.
- ajiang 13y agoYou can wrongfully send kids/people to jail as long as you don't make money off of it.
- ars 13y agoThe assumption is people won't do that since there is no reason for them to.
- deleted 13y ago[deleted]
- dlhavema 13y agothe title referenced "black children" specifically, but the article didn't mention it at all, is it supposed to be assumed all/majority of the kids sent to jail were black?
- pessimizer 13y agoIt's a black site. The girl who got sentenced for the myspace page was white (or whitesque): http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/13/us/13judge.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0 http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/13/us/13judge.html?pagewanted...
- VladRussian2 13y agohow in hell a child can get charged, let alone sent to do actual time, with crime for a mocking page? ok, judge is corrupt. Fine. Happens. Nevertheless, the judge wasn't the one who complained, arrested, charged the child. A lot of adults were involved and they actively facilitated this travesty happening. People like to blame evil for evil things, yet evil would be able to do much less without reasonable, supposedly good, people actively helping evil things to happen.
- greenyoda 13y agoI was also shocked by that. How can that be a crime at all? It would seem to be protected speech under the First Amendment. The judge and anyone else involved should have all gone to jail just for that one egregious civil rights violation.
- vegor5 13y agoShould have gotten the lethal injection.
- malandrew 13y agoOr sent him to the same prison before all those kids got released for wrongful imprisonment.
- sukuriant 13y agoYeah, because we in the States really love to make a big thing and encourage the abuses that can happen in prison. Wow...
- viggity 13y agohow about 28 years in the electric chair?
- alan_cx 13y agoWhat about one of those skin tight spandex suits with shock electrodes in it? Then give the kids a smart phone with an app that allows them to shock on demand. Every time they feels angry or frustrated at their lives being ruined, then can seemly shock the judge... "Shock the Judge".... Now there's a game show I'd watch.
- 13y ago
- mathattack 13y agoI feel like I fell for link bait - awful title. That said, this is hardly a fair sentence. He should have to serve time equal to all those lives he destroyed. How about surrendering the money and life in prison?
- andrewmunsell 13y agoConsidering his age, he'll likely be in prison for the majority of the rest of his life (if not the entirety of it).
- viggity 13y agofor non-violent offenses, with good behavior you typically only serve 30-40% of your sentence (at least in iowa, my wife is a social worker and deals with people in the system).
- deleted 13y ago[deleted]
- agwa 13y agoHe was convicted in federal court, and in the federal system there's no parole and only very limited credit for good behavior. He'll serve at least 87.1% of his sentence[1] (barring unlikely events such as a successful SCOTUS appeal or a pardon). Most likely he'll die in prison -- old prisoners age quite quickly. [1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Good_conduct_time http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Good_conduct_time
- YokoZar 13y agoThat's because the prison system is overcrowded, in part because of the judge in question, so I'm not entirely sure he'd be given the same leniency.
- mathattack 13y agoMaybe he'll get to meet with some of his old "friends" there?
- grecy 13y agoThat's a special kind of evil.
- noloqy 13y agoIt's sad that in my country, where prisons are currently run by the government, there exist plans for privatization. With privatization there's almost no benefits, and a lot of opportunities for trouble; it the Dutch government feels the urge to repeat the mistakes of others.
- justinmk 13y ago"Privatization" where the government contracts to third parties, is not privatization. When the decision is centrally-managed, and the revenue raised by force (taxes), you haven't addressed the central problem. So calling it privatization is misdirection. It's a confusion of terms that is meant to keep people arguing in circles. Actual privatization removes centralized decision-making. We should be able to opt-out of governments and opt-in to alternative sovereigns. The fact that governments are allowed to claim authority on the basis of geography is why they're still in business, and it's why these messed up situations occur.
- falk 13y ago""Privatization" where the government contracts to third parties, is not privatization." Yes it is. The definition of privatization is simply "denationalization: changing something from state to private ownership or control."
- jeltz 13y agoI am a proponent of strong government but I agree about your point about this fake privatization which most of the time works the same way as before but with more overhead and corruption. It is just switching a government agency to a company filling exactly the same role in the same way.
- noloqy 13y agoHow would you describe the central problem you're referring to? I think the main issue here is that "the system" allows for the possibility of an unjust justice system due to commercial interests. Everybody agrees that what has happened was illegal and should not have happened, and that it is the sovereign's responsibility to create a system in which the risks of such events are minimized, simply because the consequences can be so far stretching. This can be done by ensuring financial independence of judges; eliminating the role of parties who benefit from outcomes that are not necessarily aligned with society's benefits. I don't yet see how decentralizing decision making reduces this risk.
- ojbyrne 13y agoUsually when "restitution" it always seems to be significantly more than the amount actually taken. In this case, not, and I wonder why: "...received more than $2.6 million from privately run youth centers owned by PA Child Care. In 2011, Ciavarella was convicted of racketeering and sentenced to 28 years in prison. He was also forced to pay $1 million in restitution..."
- cmsmith 13y ago(in 2011) looks like one of his latest appeals was denied recently.
- drcube 13y ago> ... received more than $2.6 million ... > ... forced to pay $1 million ... Moral: crime pays.
- pstuart 13y agoThere are limited shopping options in prison.
- jack-r-abbit 13y ago> ... Ciavarella and his colleague, Judge Michael Conahan, received more than $2.6 million ... > ... He was also forced to pay $1 million ... We don't know his cut of the $2.6M or what the other guy's fine is/was (assuming other guy also has to pay). But yes... they basically just had to give the money back. (And go to prison for a bit)
- x0x0 13y agosentences: this judge, Ciavarella, got 28 years; the other judge, Conahan, who not only sold kids but also helped prevent use of the county's facility, got 17.5 years in prison; [2] Robert Powell, an attorney that passed the bribes and part owner of the facility, got 18mos in prison and $60k in fines (it is unclear how much he will serve), plus he gets to serve in Miami to be close to his family. He did apparently cooperate and wear a wire. [2] Robert Mericle, the real estate developer who built the two facilities, paid $2.15MM to fund childrens' health programs and will likely serve 1 year or even just probation; And then you read, from the wiki article [1], "Sandy Fonzo, whose son Edward Kenzakoski committed suicide after Ciavarella gave him a jail sentence, despite Kenzakoski's first-time offender status" and I sit here amazed. Millions of dollars of theft, bribes accepted not only for children but in cases as well, children sold for cash, children pushed into suicide... I'd say all of them got a slap on the wrist. The other thing, unremarked upon by the wiki article, is I wonder who else knew about this? Just like Annie Dookhan, who was faking drug test results in Boston and sent hundreds at least to prison, possibly tainting thirty four thousand verdicts, or Jonathan Salvador, who was doing similar things in texas [4], tainting five thousand convictions, I'd bet good money there where people who saw this happening. Did you read some of the convictions? "He once sentenced a teen to three months in jail for creating a MySpace page that mocked her school’s assistant principal." Many of these fucking pigs knew what was going on, knew how to fuck a kid who was mouthy or didn't kiss their asses and send them to the judge that would send the kid up the river. Moral: never trust a pig. from [4] Worse yet, the lab Salvador worked for knew he was doing a bad job for years. A DPS investigative commission found that Salvador was asked to correct mistakes in about a third of all the tests he ran. Periodic job evaluations noted that Salvador struggled with an overall understanding of chemistry and that his problems were very systemic and his work right on the edge of tolerable, though not catastrophic. It could probably be described as catastrophic now. Twenty cases have been overturned so far, voiding almost 160 years of prison sentences. If all of Salvador's cases are thrown out, which is looking more likely, the lost sentences will total more than 10,000 years. In Walker County, DA David Weeks has already given up. His office tried to retest evidence from Salvador's cases, but the results were haphazard, Weeks told the Hunstville Item. In a case where [Salvador] said there was drugs, there wouldnt be. And when he said there were no drugs, there were drugs. "Its clear that all the cases [Salvador] worked on are irreparably damaged, Weeks said. He's already making arrangements to expunge the records of every affected defendant. It blew up in our faces. I'd bet if anyone looked hard enough in the kids for cash trade, there were at best a bunch of other people not seeing what was plain as day in front of them. sources: [1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kids_for_cash_scandal http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kids_for_cash_scandal [2] http://citizensvoice.com/18-month-sentence-for-powell-kids-for-cash-financier-and-star-witness-1.1227829 http://citizensvoice.com/18-month-sentence-for-powell-kids-f... [3] http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2210168/Boston-state-chemist-Annie-Dookhan-arrested-fake-drug-tests-Massachusetts.html http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2210168/Boston-state... [4] http://www.texasobserver.org/fake-lab-results-endanger-thousands-of-drug-convictions/ http://www.texasobserver.org/fake-lab-results-endanger-thous... [5] http://www.esquire.com/blogs/politics/The_Drug_War_Eats_Itself http://www.esquire.com/blogs/politics/The_Drug_War_Eats_Itse... edited: I accidentally clicked submit while still editing
- guiseppecalzone 13y agoThere's no mention if there were any repercussions for the private juvenile facilities.
- Roboprog 13y agoIf there were any justice, the restitution that the bribing company was required to pay would bankrupt it (them?). But we know that won't happen :-( I would have thought that at least somebody in the company would be thrown under the bus for signing the expense report for the bribes (regardless of the line item description used instead of "bribe"), though. This will allow the company to hire a new patsy to bribe new judges to continue their operation.
- jdmt 13y agohttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kids_for_cash_scandal http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kids_for_cash_scandal This whole problem stems from the movement to privatize prisons. It's a disgusting abuse of power. The lives of many at-risk children (and their families) have been turned upside-down due to greed.
- beedogs 13y agoI hope this asshole dies in jail, and I fear he's not the last crooked judge they'll catch doing this shit. Private prisons are a disgrace to the justice system.
- donohoe 13y agoThe question is - where else is this happening now?
- forrestthewoods 13y agoCan we also send all prosecutors who only care about maintaing a 100% conviction rate to jail? Their actions are the exact same as far as I'm concerned.
- khuey 13y agoA prosecutor maintaining a 100% conviction rate isn't necessarily a bad thing if it mean they only charge people against whom they can build an ironclad case.
- bilbo0s 13y agoOf course, they can build an ironclad case against ANYONE. So...
- dclowd9901 13y agoI don't want a 100% conviction rate from a prosecutor. I want a conviction rate that reflects the statistical norm of a person being charged with a crime and being convicted. Anything outside of that within a few points margin-of-error is grounds for removal.
- solistice 13y agoWhat really troubles me is what they'll do to help those 4000 children. I think they might lack the maturity to deal with their experience. Hell, if someone sent me to jail over something like that when I was in my teens, I would certainly have taken the wrong turn at that point.
- noonespecial 13y agoWith that many kids, at those impressionable ages, I'd say there's a limited but real chance they may have created a "Joker" level villian somewhere in that bunch.
- solistice 13y agoWhat scares me about it is that these kids have likely gotten used to juvenile detention (and detention in general), which'll lead them to view it more lax. Adding to that the time they lost outside of the school system, the social stigma that goes along with having been to "jail" and you've got yourself more a more explosive cocktail than anything described in the anarchists cookbook. If you're socially sidelined and have no options for a career, crime is enticing. Especially since you've been stamped a criminal allready, and you've been locked up (yes, they were aquitted, but they won't realize that, and their peers won't either). Assuming they just took problem kids across the whole spectrum, assuming 500 non problem kids, you have 3500 problem kids. A rough guess of mine would be that 1-2% are too smart for school kids that cause trouble out of sheer boredom. So you've got 70 bored hacker type kids that suddenly have someone who's mistreated them, and I'd want to get back at them. A couple of them proably took the frugal coping mechanism of sociopathy. If your school system gets kids to come to school armed, prepared to kill, how the hell will that play out?
- gohrt 13y agoPerhaps these individuals will become empowered freedom fighters on the outskirts of society who no longer fear the System
- protomyth 13y ago"Pennsylvania is one of just a handful of states that do not provide any money to counties to defend those who can't afford a lawyer."[1] Perhaps the DA and Public Defenders office should have equal budgets. I am hoping some very smart lawyer figures out how to sue the prison company for these children. I am sure their is a corporate veil, but it can be pierced in the cases of criminal activity. Public-private partnerships work in a lot of cases, but this one needs a serious hammer to show that pulling this crap is bad and will put some scheming folks in jail. 1) http://www.npr.org/2012/03/03/147876810/after-scandal-new-rules-for-juveniles-in-pa-courts http://www.npr.org/2012/03/03/147876810/after-scandal-new-ru...
- tracker1 13y agoI would prefer that the public defenders office and the DA office have to rotate their staff out to eachother... so you cannot just serve as a DA.
- aswanson 13y agoBrilliant. That would align incentives more along the lines of serving justice rather than sensationalism/careerism.
- deleted 13y ago[deleted]
- protomyth 13y agoThat would be very interesting. Does any country do that? A pool of lawyers randomly chosen might be an interesting variant. I do wish the $ were closer, but your idea would basically fix that.
- rbehrends 13y agoEngland and Wales. While the CPS has moved towards having more permanently employed barristers, it still regularly hires barristers in private practice to represent the Crown in the lower courts as so-called "agents" that are "instructed" by the CPS [1]. This has largely historical reasons; until not so long ago, England did not have designated prosecutors (in fact, well into the 19th century it often fell to private citizens to initiate prosecution, until the police started to take over that role). That said, the CPS will likely still have more resources at its disposal than public defenders. [1] http://www.euro-justice.com/member_states/england_wales/country_report/451/ http://www.euro-justice.com/member_states/england_wales/coun...
- s_baby 13y agoAs I've read about this story for the past couple years not once have the bribers been mentioned. How much time will they be serving? Are these really people that should be trusted with the incarceration of minors?
- batiste 13y agoThis is absolutely revolting and disgusting! Good think he got 28 years.
- negamax 13y agoWould the prison company be punished for this?
- chris_wot 13y ago4,000 kids? Each kid has at least 5 people who love and care for them. 20,000 folks who start an action group might start some change!
- Expeck 13y agoWow! I remember these guys from Micheal Moore's movie "Capitalism a Love Story".There is part about private jails for teenagers. It says that 6500 kids were unjustly convicted. Some kids were locked up even when probation officers objected to detention. You can watch that part here: http://vimeo.com/39118828 http://vimeo.com/39118828 00:30:30
- orbitingpluto 13y agoThose who prey on children tend to have a real bad time in prison when the prison population finds out. Considering the number of people sentenced, good luck keeping their identities a secret. Neither of the judges is going to enjoy their stay.
- canadiancreed 13y agoWhen I first heard about this, I was thinking that it happened in a third world country. After reading that it occured in Pennsylvania....I'm just amazed, disgusted, and furious. Hopefully Harrisburg does a long cleanup of that section of the state's court system, that civil suit crushes those responsible for this, and the bastards that profited from such a bastardization of justice serve the entire sentence out in a Hell on earth.
- spoiledtechie 13y agoThis might be news, but what the heck does this have to do with Hacker News?
- mhartl 13y agoContra the OP, the problem isn't for-profit prisons per se; the problem is for-profit prisons in a political system highly susceptible to rent-seeking by special interest groups.
- SloughFeg 13y agoAnyone else want to create a HN spinoff with me? We can call it "SOCIAL JUSTICE NEWS" or just "SOCIAL J" for short.