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Judge Sentenced to 28 Years for Selling Kids to the Prison System (2013)
- jacquesm 12y agoWhat really really bugs me about this case is how little money he got. I mean, come on. Judges earn a pretty good living, this guy sold his soul and thousands of real people for a bit over a million. Incredible. I can see how some people might be tempted to do something as bad as this for 100's of millions (they obviously still should not do it, it is just as bad in every other way). But a mere million dollars for the lives of thousands of people? That makes a human life worth < $1000 per head to this judge. I have similar feelings about how cheap politicians are to bribe.
- bussiere 12y agoas a ùaybe futur lobbyist, i will say that it's more the feeling and the act that count more that the sum. The feeling of power and f the system or abuse the system, or maybe he liked more the idea of sending people to jail more than the money. Sade in one of his book make a story where a judge made things in a brothel with a windows that have a see on the execution. I think that you have to think about the feelings more than the sum of money. regards
- detrino 12y agoFiction is not reality, this judge was almost certainly motivated primarily by money.
- limaoscarjuliet 12y agoThe 1 million was what was proven in court. We do not know how much money him and his family got that could not be proven. E.g. his daughter could work as consultant in company X that is controlled by someone who owns the prisons. etc.
- spacefight 12y agoIt's not that a human life was worth < $1000 to him but more that those who bribed him could spend at least that value per person as "acquisition" costs.
- jacquesm 12y agoI really don't see the difference. He set the price they paid it, or they offered, he accepted. Same thing.
- maaaats 12y ago> (...) he violated the constitutional rights of the juveniles – including the right to legal counsel and the right to intelligently enter a plea How come a judge can do stuff like this, without anyone else noticing/care? One would think a punishment so serious as prison would involve more than one pair of eyes.
- fixermark 12y agoHonestly, this article is a bad (also, old) summary of the story. You'll get better information from the Wikipedia site: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mark_Ciavarella http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mark_Ciavarella Long story short: he was sentencing them to juvenile detention, not adult prison. The bar is lower for juvenile detention.
- bostik 12y ago> he was sentencing them to juvenile detention, not adult prison. The bar is lower for juvenile detention. I read that as "He sentenced them to juvenile detention where threshold for detection in case of abuse is lower." As a hacker/engineer, ask yourself this: if a (trusted third) party is getting kickbacks for providing false positives, what do you call that?
- DanBC 12y agoWhy is the bar lower for juvenile detention?
- happyscrappy 12y ago"Ciavarella pleaded guilty on February 13, 2009, pursuant to a plea agreement, to federal charges of honest services fraud, wire fraud and tax evasion in connection with receiving $2.6 million in kickbacks from Robert Powell and Robert Mericle, the co-owner and builder respectively, of two private, for-profit juvenile facilities. In exchange for these kickbacks, Ciavarella sentenced children to extended stays in juvenile detention for offenses as minimal as mocking a principal on Myspace, trespassing in a vacant building, and shoplifting DVDs from Wal-mart.[6] More specifically, the crimes charged were: conspiracy to deprive the public of the "intangible right of honest services", or corruption, and conspiracy to defraud the United States by failing to report income to the Internal Revenue Service.[7] Ciavarella tendered his resignation to Governor Ed Rendell on January 23, 2009, prior to official publication of the charges.[2] The plea agreement[8] called for Ciavarella to serve up to seven years in prison, pay fines and restitution, and accept responsibility for the crimes.[9] However, Ciavarella has denied that there was a connection between the juvenile sentences he rendered and the kickbacks he received.[10][11] In part because of this denial, on July 30, 2009, Judge Edwin M. Kosik of Federal District Court in Scranton, Pennsylvania rejected the plea agreement. He ruled that Ciavarella had continued to deny that there was a ‘quid pro quo’ between his receipt of money and his jailing of juveniles, instead characterizing the money as a "finder’s fee" despite what Judge Kosik felt was the weight of the government's evidence.[12] Attorneys for the two judges brought a motion requesting reconsideration of the judge's rejection of the plea agreement.[13] The motion was denied on August 24, and Ciavarella and Conahan withdrew their guilty pleas, resulting in the case going to trial.[14] On September 9, 2009, a federal grand jury in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania returned a 48 count indictment against Ciavarella and Conahan,[15] which includes racketeering, fraud, money laundering, extortion, bribery, and federal tax violations. Both judges were arraigned on the charges on September 15, 2009.[16][17] Ciavarella and Conahan entered pleas of not guilty to the 48 count indictment and remained free on one million dollar bail, despite federal prosecutors contentions that their bail should be raised since they now faced the possibility of substantially more prison time and that there was evidence of their attempts to shield assets.[18] On February 18, 2011, a jury in federal court found Ciavarella guilty of racketeering. This charge stemmed from Ciavarella accepting $997,000 in illegal payments from Robert Mericle, the real estate developer of PA Child Care, and attorney Robert Powell, a co-owner of the facility. Ciavarella was also on trial for 38 other counts including accepting numerous payments from Mericle and Powell as well as tax evasion.[19] On August 11, 2011, Ciavarella was sentenced to 28 years in federal prison. On May 24, 2013, the Third Circuit Court of Appeals vacated one count of the indictment against Ciavarella, but upheld all other charges, as well as his sentence.[20] The Third Circuit refused to reconsider on July 24th, 2013. Ciavarella can still appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court, but it rarely accepts cases.[21] With good behavior, he could be released in less than 24 years, when he would be 85.[22] Ciavarella, inmate number 15008-067, is serving his sentence at Federal Correctional Institution, Pekin in Pekin, Illinois. His earliest projected release date is December 30, 2035." From Wikipedia.
- click170 12y agoWhat really bugs me is that we're all focusing on the judge, not about the fact that there are for-profit prisons. Is that not going to lead other judges to the same corruption over time? To me, the idea of a for-profit prison is just backwards, there should never be an incentive for them to incarcerate innocent people, and if it is that is a symptom that the system is broken.
- jacquesm 12y agoOh, absolutely. But this case is against a judge, someone normally beyond suspicion. If a judge says 'a' and you say 'b' it's 'a'. For a person in a position like that abuse trust at this scale is absolutely incredible (well, no longer incredible I guess, it happened). The US prison system is rotten to the core, there is no doubt about it but this is one is beyond what I ever considered possible, even in the US system as it is today. I'm trying to imagine how the approach would have gone. Hey Judge, how about I give you some money if you send more inmates (children maybe?) my way? The expected answer is "How about you end up in jail yourself", not a discussion of terms.
- yutah 12y agoMaybe the judge knew what they could afford for brides while staying profitable... but anyways $1 million or $200 millions is not a big difference for doing something like this unless all you think about is money.
- dllthomas 12y ago"But a mere million dollars for the lives of thousands of people? That makes a human life worth < $1000 per head to this judge." I expect he was telling himself that these kids weren't great kids to begin with, and probably basically deserved to be in juvie anyway. (I'm not sure that makes it better, and it's atrocious regardless, but it is a slightly different perspective).
- _pius 12y agoShould have been life.
- cmdrfred 12y agoShould of been death really, It should be treason to tamper with the criminal justice system in a manner that puts innocent people in prison.
- thisjepisje 12y agoHow barbaric of you.
- fixermark 12y agoWhile it's reasonable to ask whether the death penalty is appropriate even in cases such as treason, there's a fair case to be made that this level of subversion of the legal system is treason.
- thisjepisje 12y agoIsn't it also clear that the legal system is pretty broken in this case? Edit: I could be wrong, only judging from 2 articles about this case.
- cmdrfred 12y agoWhat is barbaric is putting people in cages without any reason to do so. Elected officials should be held to a higher standard and when they do wrong the consequences of those actions should be much higher. IE: Death.
- thisjepisje 12y agoYep, both things are barbaric. Murdering people because they've done something wrong is just silly, though.
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- Fastidious 12y agoIt should be noted that this is a year old news.
- splintercell 12y agoAnd that only 3% of our prison population is in private prisons.
- CoachRufus87 12y agoThat's 68,000 people. A lot of people.
- sschueller 12y agoIt's more. Corrections Corporation of America alone has "90,000 offenders and detainees"[1] [1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Corrections_Corporation_of_America http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Corrections_Corporation_of_Amer...
- julian37 12y agoIt was 8.0% in 2010 according to http://www.bjs.gov/content/pub/pdf/p10.pdf http://www.bjs.gov/content/pub/pdf/p10.pdf appendix table 19. Tendency increasing.
- owenjones 12y agoI'm not a really vindictive person, but I'm so glad this guy is going to jail; hopefully for the rest of his life.
- cmdrfred 12y agoIf you think the current state of affairs in America isn't a problem you simply need to look to the above article. Disgraceful, hopefully he dies in prison.
- slowmotiony 12y agoWhat kind of a website is this? A couple of lines for an article, no sources and some shitty "how to get benefits" ads on the sidebar? Come on now.
- patrickg 12y agoI am always astonished (not in the positive meaning) by the length of theses sentences. The maximum sentence in Germany is 15 years (except for a life long sentence for murder, which could be longer). (disclaimer: I am a volunteer/part time judge) Edit: I'd like to add that I will not comment in public whether I think the sentence is appropriate or not, as I don't ever want anybody in a trial to accuse me of a biased opinion, although I highly doubt that anyone of "my" indicted people will ever read HN.
- ddoolin 12y agoAllow me to pick your brain: Do you think it's unfair in this kind of sentence? Any kind of sentence over 15 that doesn't qualify for life under German law?
- patrickg 12y agoAbout fairness: I think the discussion is way out of scope of HN, and I think it's about what you expect from a law system in a country. I don't understand your second question. You mean, what kind of sentences are life long sentences? Murder, high treason (?) (Hochverrat gegenüber dem Bund) can be given life long sentence, Sexual abuses against a child in which the child dies (and several other crimes where a person dies can be punished with life long sentence)
- Tomte 12y agoDon't forget genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes (perhaps surprisingly, you can commit genocide without killing a single person). Easily overlooked because it's not in the Strafgesetzbuch (Penal Code) anymore. Probably the only felonies that carry a life sentence that are not found in the Strafgesetzbuch.
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- jacquesm 12y agoIn this case it really couldn't be high enough. Looking forward to the system wide audit of all people sentenced by all judges over the last 2 decades to make sure this hasn't happened elsewhere.
- ddoolin 12y agoI'm shocked but also feel like I've seen something like this happening before, or at least some source speculating on it's possibility. Is there a precedent for this kind of corruption in the U.S? Elsewhere?
- warfangle 12y agoYep, though not as illegally done. The for-profit prison industrial complex spends millions of dollars lobbying for lengthier prison sentences. Every bed they fill is money the state pays them. Prisons pay politicians to get beds filled for lengthier times, so they can make more money from the states that convict and send them prisoners. It's a disgusting immoral racket.
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- JoeAltmaier 12y agoI'm not finding anything online about what money private prison lobbyist spend on tougher sentencing. Folks claim 'millions of dollars' but this could just be hot air. Any references?
- warfangle 12y agoCCA (Corrections Corporation of America) has scaled down their lobbying in past years; it peaked in '05 with $3.38m. Since '04, they've spent $2.3 million in campaign contributions and $21 million in lobbying [0]. The GEO group spends much less (but they are global, serving Australia, South Africa & the UK as well): $1.143 million in campaign contributions and $3.56 million in lobbying since '04 [1]. 0. http://www.opensecrets.org/lobby/clientsum.php?id=D000021940 http://www.opensecrets.org/lobby/clientsum.php?id=D000021940 1. http://www.opensecrets.org/orgs/summary.php?id=D000022003&cycle=A http://www.opensecrets.org/orgs/summary.php?id=D000022003&cy...
- JoeAltmaier 12y ago
- spacefight 12y agoThere must be monentary incentives somewhere else too, otherwise the US wouldn't lead the world on the list of imprisoned population: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_incarceration_rate#United_States http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_incarcerat... (juveniles not in the list)
- mcv 12y agoThere's certainly more monetary incentives. Some private prisons have an agreement with a state where the state guarantees a certain numberof inmates. So even if crime were to stop, the state would be legally requires to fill up those prisons. So there's very little incentive to prevent crime, and a lot to lock people up for fairly minor offenses (like owning a small amount of pot). Police departments are also often rewarded based on how many people they get locked up, rather than how much they reduce crime. So there's little incentive to pursue hard-to-prove crimes (like rape) and lots of incentive to lock people up for minor but easy to prove charges, or even charges for which it's easy to fake evidence.
- spacefight 12y ago"a state where the state guarantees a certain numberof inmates." Wow, I'm shocked. Any examples for this?
- bostik 12y agohttp://www.salon.com/2014/04/15/america_on_lockdown_why_the_private_prison_industry_is_exploding_partner/ http://www.salon.com/2014/04/15/america_on_lockdown_why_the_... And to pick a choice quote from the text: Arizona is one of four states (along with Virginia, Oklahoma and Louisiana) in which state governments are bound to contracts guaranteeing a 95%-100% occupancy in facilities leased by private prisons. EDIT: typofix
- admax88q 12y ago"state where the state guarantees a certain numberof inmates." That does not sound true at all. Source?
- thomasvendetta 12y agoHis sentence should have been longer, but why are we giving this guy any more time of our day? This happened last year.
- icebraining 12y agoThree years ago, actually.
- JoeAltmaier 12y agoThat article is hardly informative. What did he do wrong? Sentence juveniles solely to a single contracted prison? So were his decisions actually compromised? Or was it just the kickbacks that are at issue. There's a sad state of affairs on the internet, where a couple of paragraphs of slanted commentary are called an 'article'.
- FireBeyond 12y agoGiven that thousands of juvenile detentions were overturned, it was shown that he interfered with things beyond a reasonable doubt (though I agree that this isn't the best article). For one of the more egregious examples (though there were several things wrong with this - this was just the last link in the chain) was the extended detention of a child whose 'crime' was insulting his school principal on Myspace.
- spacefight 12y agoI wouldn't be surprised, if this judge is just the tip of a very large big and still floating iceberg.
- revscat 12y agoThis iceberg is still there, and it is right in our faces. The drug war has made a lot of people very, very wealthy at the expense of millions of first-time drug offenders who have been slapped with punishments far outweighing their crimes.
- rdebeasi 12y agoThe New York Times has more detailed coverage of this case: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/28/us/28judges.html?_r=1 http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/28/us/28judges.html?_r=1 http://www.nytimes.com/2013/03/31/books/review/kids-for-cash-and-the-injustice-system.html http://www.nytimes.com/2013/03/31/books/review/kids-for-cash...
- architek1 12y agoOriginal article from Reuter's in Aug 11, 2011.http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/08/11/us-crime-kidsforcash-idUSTRE77A6KG20110811 http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/08/11/us-crime-kidsforca...
- lasermike026 12y agoThis is a decent sentence. I hope it sticks. I suspect there is more of this kind of the thing in the courts. The entire police, prison, and court systems needs to be disinfected. Reorganize the whole thing.
- cyanbane 12y agoIs there an aggregate source for sentencing data per state? I understand sentencing varies per judge and in accordance with state laws, but you would think this data exists at the state level and abnormalities (like this judges history?) might bubble up.
- buf 12y agoI am disgusted at how little time he got. He knows the full extent of what he is doing, as he is a judge. As a person who has seen what prison can do to a person, I feel this is unjust.
- fixermark 12y agoThere's very well an argument to be made that this level of subversion of the United States's legal system should really be considered to rise to treason. If you want to kill a nation, shake people's faith in the function of its legal institutions.
- spacemanmatt 12y agoIn this modern context, a terrorism prosecution seems appropriate.
- NoMoreNicksLeft 12y ago28 years is a life sentence effectively, especially for a man that age. Giving him a 10,000 year sentence just so we can pretend we're sufficiently harsh is absurd.
- AimHere 12y ago28 years is a long time, more or less a life sentence; given his age, he's quite likely to die in jail. It's a very heavy sentence indeed.
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- linuxhansl 12y agoHe still deservers a fair trial, due process, and a fair sentence. These are exactly the things he denied the children he sentenced, we should be better and not do the same.
- phdp 12y ago> If the person can be proven guilty beyond a shadow of a doubt, be quick to punish, not let it drag on. This is the part that takes a long time, and even then we often get it wrong. See the Innocence Project for examples. http://www.innocenceproject.org/ http://www.innocenceproject.org/
- JoeAltmaier 12y agoSo from an engineer's viewpoint, going quickly has no downside (same error rate) and lots of upside (most cases get resolved quickly and cheaply)?
- marcinx27 12y agoI'm from the area that was under Ciavarella. I remember being in middle school and having him say in an assembly "If you get in a fight, you're coming to me and you're going away. Miss too much school, you're coming to see me and you're going away."
- colinbartlett 12y agoCan a mod please add "2013" to the end of this? It's pretty old news.
- billmalarky 12y agoI remember this guy. I'll never forget this short video that came out during the case. It does a really good job of portraying just how despicable this man's actions were. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H8JRMGP2hg8 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H8JRMGP2hg8
- petilon 12y agoThe real scandal here is the privatization of the prison system. Had the prison not been a for-profit corporation this kind of thing would not have happened. This story shows that some things should not be privatized. Some people (Rand Paul) believe the Iraq war would not have happened had the US government not relied on for-profit corporations (Halliburton) for war-related contracts. See: http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/post-politics/wp/2014/04/07/rand-paul-in-09-cheney-pushed-iraq-war-to-benefit-halliburton/ http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/post-politics/wp/2014/04...
- devalnor 12y agoI can only suggest you to watch the PrisonValley documentary (2009) about the prison industry. http://prisonvalley.arte.tv/?lang=en http://prisonvalley.arte.tv/?lang=en
- boards2x 12y agoWhat's disgusting is that he gets 28 years and not life, or better, death prbalty. If there was ever a justified reason (ie Israel executing Eichman) this is it.
- pan69 12y agoWelcome to the world of privatisation. When you privatize institutions which should be run by the government in the first place (health care, public transport, prisons, etc..) then you obviously open up the door for all sorts of corruption since now suddenly all these systems need to make profit.