No one could have predicted that privatizing the criminal justice system could lead to something like this (via Atrios):
In one of the most egregious cases of judicial corruption ever seen, federal prosecutors charged Ciavarella and another Luzerne County judge, Michael Conahan, with taking $2.6 million in payoffs to put juvenile offenders in private lockups.
The judges pleaded guilty to fraud last month and face sentences of more than seven years in prison.
The high court approved the recommendations of Berks County Senior Judge Arthur Grim, who was appointed to review cases handled by Ciavarella. He advised expunging the records of low-level offenders who appeared in Ciavarella’s courtroom without lawyers — a group he has said numbered ”easily into the hundreds.”
I’m sure these kids had all done something wrong, though. Those who have nothing to hide have nothing to fear.
whinger
When the real world outstrips paranoid delusions…
cmorenc
For every courthouse or judge that is corrupt, there are a hundred who are callous and view garden-variety criminal defendants as completely a species apart from themselves. They cannot imagine themselves at the receiving end of the criminal justice system, or ever being in a situation of being accused where they themselves would need defending against charges.
random asshole
Has the class-action lawsuit against the state been filed yet, or shall we begin the countdown?
Keith
I wonder what kind of message this sends to children.
DougJ
Very funny.
AhabTRuler
Might as well call this one "Broken social contract" as well.
Michael
Another nail in the coffin of Reaganism – privatization of government function has turned out to be a joke.
You can’t add in a layer of crony-connected profits and have the "service" be provided with integrity or efficiency.
A Mom Anon
I have a teenager and I often wonder how creeped out today’s kids have to be by adults.
And again with the punishing for every mistake made. I’m all for putting criminals behind bars,and heaven knows some kids are hardened criminals,but these are still kids. No kid dreams of a life of crime,the adults in their lives fell down on the job. Alot of the ones in this case didn’t do anything that damned horrendous. They were dollar signs and nothing more to the judges and the system itself.
Not everything needs to be for profit,and certainly jails and the courts should fall under that umbrella,no exceptions.
AhabTRuler
Wasn’t it always?
AhabTRuler
@A Mom Anon: I am a "returning" student at my college, and i have to wonder what the little fuckers (as I so kindly call them) must think about all the "no cheating" that the worthless douche-bags (as I so kindly call them) prattle on about. I mean, has the message of accountability and responsibility any relevance anymore?
I mean, I am honest to a fault, but I am not unaware of the level of hypocrisy in our society of late, and if you never knew anything other than "Clinton got a blow-job," and IOKIYAR, what chance do you have?
Slappy White
Sweet my home town Wilkes Barre PA representin! So now we are known for this and George Banks
Ricky Bobby
Damn skippy! Everyone knows that only the guilty get arrested, just ask Nancy Grace (most ironic name EVAR).
Punchy
Judges in prison, eh? Hope those lockups have The Mother Of All Isolation Security. Methinks shivs are being sharpened as I type.
Zifnab
Who says slavery is dead? It’s like we’ve taken farm subsidies to the next level. You used to pay for farmers to not grown. Now you’re paying for people to not work. What a brilliant social move. You almost have to wonder why our economy is in the crapper.
thrashbluegrass
I’m waiting for a hard-core libertarian to come forward and explain that this was due to libertarian principles not being implemented strongly enough.
A Mom Anon
@AhabTRuler:
There’s that and the sexualizing of kids,not so much among themselves,but by adults(all that "barely legal"porny stuff,etc), the lack of just any sort of moral compass or work ethic and what seems to be really endless selfishness.
I don’t know,I guess I’ve spent too long in red state suburbia,but I’ve lost alot of my faith in people. I really wish we could move,but then I wonder where on earth we could go to escape the crappy attitude and disregard for others.
Clutch414
This is OT but…BEHOLD!! The GOP’s alternative "budget" (.pdf) has seen the light of day!
TPM’s rundown…hilarious!!
kormgar
Holy shit.
Brachiator
Ah, yes, a mockery of justice, but how much money did the county save?
smiley
After graduating from college and before graduate school, I worked for a few years at a Catholic boys home. Although not a "jail" per se, the boys were sentenced to time there by the criminal justice system (i.e., judges) for various minor and not-so-minor crimes. They’ve been around forever. They predate Reagan by a lot.
R-Jud
Ugh. Speaking from experience, being a teenager in Luzerne County is punishment enough without adding a prison sentence to it.
@ post 2:
I imagine that could be true for judges, but a lot of trial lawyers I’ve known say the one nightmare that actually makes them wake up in a cold sweat is the one where they’re about to start a 25-to-life prison term for something they didn’t do.
SpotWeld
I get the impression you say that with sarcasm, but the truth seems to be all the more terrible.
A lot of those kids were giulty, of very minor infractions.
They pled guilty with the understanding that their punishment would be proportional to the crime. Rather than warnings, public service hours, or fines they were sent to private lockups.
Now.. because of this instance of perversion in that local justive system a lot of defendants are going to think twice about trusting the mercy of the court… or even the honesty of the court.
guest omen
this is reminiscent of the case in tulia texas, where a gypsy faux "sheriff" the town hired charged a lot of innocent blacks with phony drug possession charges just on his word alone. found out from this story that it’s not uncommon for poor counties to raise revenue by leveling bogus charges just to force people to pay court fees.
AhabTRuler
Actually, that’s old-skool.
Tsulagi
Let’s see, judges in prison convicted of taking bribes to fuck over those in their courtrooms. I’m thinking their dance cards are going to be pretty full for the next seven years. And something else too; Astroglide will be their friend.
Woody
The privatization of penology is only just marginally less callous barbarity than the privatization of health care.
And, in my experience, folks who disparage trial lawyers mostly haven’t ever been defendants.
Woody
You could have gotten that hint from Bush v Gore, nest paw?
Incertus
Bet the
judgesfelons were lawyered up to the teeth, even though they pled guilty. Fuck those guys.Tom
I am assuming, but not entirely sure, that your last sentence was sarcastic. Just in case:
Tom
Crap. Sorry about the formatting. Never mind, I’m too lazy to try to fix it.
DougJ
Yes, I was being sarcastic!
chuck
FOR
PROFIT
PRISONS
Jesus Christ, I’m switching to Marxism. The class war is already in full swing, it seems high time to at least fight back.
kay
@SpotWeld:
A lot of those kids were giulty, of very minor infractions.
They pled guilty with the understanding that their punishment would be proportional to the crime. Rather than warnings, public service hours, or fines they were sent to private lockups.
It’s worse than that. Juvenile defendants have to make a knowing waiver of counsel. They didn’t. They were taken through those two judge’s courtrooms at lightening speed: one and two minute hearings.
Juveniles have a different process than adults. It’s a recognition of their special status, and it’s been in place since the early sixties in most states. It’s three stages. These kids were hauled in, charged, adjudicated and sentenced in three minutes. Those that had parental guidance and retained counsel and insisted on even rudimentary process were not sent to lock-up.
I represent juveniles and dependent children, in a state court with a common pleas court structure like to Pennsylvania’s.
The following adults had to willfully ignore what was happening, for nearly two years:
any juvenile defense counsel who appear in that court
prosecutors
social service agency workers
probation staff
They knew. They had to know.
That county has bigger problems than two crooked judges.
JL
@Tom: Your post was excellent. I was just googling the NYTimes article on the judges. Here’s more infor on Hillary. Her mom sent her to court by herself since it might be a learning experience without thinking that she would be sent to boot camp.
For those that want more information, here’s the NYTimes article
kay
Next thing they need to find out is why their county prosecutors read the charges in court, and brought guilty pleas to the judge, offered by unrepresented 15 year olds in two minute hearings, for nearly two years.
Why they allowed that to happen, knowing they were all going to locked facilities, essentially without a hearing. Hundreds of them.
I’d fire the whole juvenile section.
John S.
Times like this make me think of the Pet Shop Boys’ song Integral:
It’s also a very good song (if you like the Pet Shop Boys).
JL
@kay: The clerks that worked for the judges had to know. If the judges only gave harsh sentences to the so called "trouble makers" they probably could have gotten away with it indefinitely. (sad but true) When the judges started sentencing stellar students, they got caught.
Tom
Here’s the wrenching account of what happened to the poor child from Sacramento which finally, finally stopped the practice of shipping our wayward children off to Arizona to die.
A Puzzling Death at Boys Ranch – Los Angeles Times
Sorry, but it still horrifies me, I remember this case well. Hats off to the LAT when they finally woke up, they stayed on it and forced an end to this era.
kay
@JL:
I kept thinking how gossipy courts are. Sure, the clerks knew.
I want the prosecutors, though. Last time I checked, they’re the state, and they have an additional duty.
They’re not supposed to stand there like potted plants while a judge violates the law, and, last time I checked, the Constitution is the law.
Tom
@kay:
You are right. They had to know. They knew and kept quiet all that time. It disturbs me that people take the incarceration of children so cavalierly. I predict someone on this thread will say something to the effect that they had it coming. No. They didn’t.
Stefan
The judges pleaded guilty to fraud last month and face sentences of more than seven years in prison.
I’m against the death penalty, but in this case I’d happily make an exception. Hang ’em high.
Stefan
15-year-old Hillary Transue was sentenced to three months at a juvenile detention center on a charge of harassment for mocking an assistant principal on a MySpace page.
How is that even a crime? Mockery is now an imprisonable offense?
The Populist
Scumbaggery at it’s finest. Gee right wingers, is there nothing you would do for a payoff from your private industry buddies?
Now I understand why they love the private sector and despise legit government…they can’t profit off of legit government.
The Populist
I hate to play this card but was this juvenile black?
Nonetheless, this is modern day conservatism at work. Put people in jail who could otherwise get some probation cleaning up freeways just cuz you can.
JL
@Tom: The sad thing is that beside the NYTimes, I haven’t seen a lot about this case. 24/7 spends it time on whether or not Obama is angry, or laughs or is boring. The judges need to go to boot camp in Arizona and after that they can rot in hell.
Michael
The Reagan Administration was an 8 year long Shock and Awe blitzkrieg in the Class War – the defenders just never knew it.
Tom
@JL:
I share your frustration, JL. These are often one-day stories at best. Otherwise normal people have a very strange attitude about juvenile, and adult offenders. It shocks me sometimes. I guess I shouldn’t have been so gobsmacked about the number of people who supported the Bush-Cheney Torture Administration. Because in the case I linked to, aat the time you had people declaring that this poor kid "had it coming." I swear that’s the truth. Read it again, and tell me what world people live in that think a 15-year-old "had" that "coming."
I give props to the LAT for keeping at it long enough to effect policy change. It wasn’t their most popular story.
d0n Camillo
The last 20 years after Reagan has been one long mopping up operation. It is funny having a war where one side doesn’t know they’re under attack.
guest omen
@Stefan:
what kind of a mom sends their kid off to court alone?
gypsy howell
What kind of "justice system" would allow 15 and 17 year olds to represent themselves in a court of law alone? It’s not their fault if their parents weren’t there to help them.
I live in PA and I hope these muthaf**kers are hung by their balls – I mean literally. String a rope around them and raise them up a few feet off the floor.
Seven years? How about 7 years for each count.
I want to see them in "pound me in the ass prison." For life, or as long as they last.
kay
@guest omen:
You have to understand. The parents sit out in the hall at the hearing. They may come in, it’s permitted. They aren’t parties, but they can speak at a hearing. They often don’t. They don’t really know what’s going on. They’re a little ashamed the kid is in court. They’re desperate to please the judge.
The parents that make me the saddest are poor and rural. They can’t wait to agree, to basically anything. They inevitably thank the assembled officialdom, whatever happens.
LongHairedWeirdo
I’m not normally the vengeful type.
But their *minimum* sentence should be the sum of all of the sentences they handed out.
kay
@Tom:
I didn’t get, in a gut sense, the whole "jailer has a responsibility to bound prisoner" idea until one day looking down at the hands of a cuffed 15 year old while I was talking to him. His hands. Ah. Vulnerable. He’s "ours", in a very real sense.
But, before that, I didn’t get it. And I really like a lot of them.
Tom
@kay: Kay, thank you for doing the work that you do. It’s hard. Take care of yourself too.
kay
@Tom:
I chose it, and I really like the work.
HyperIon
@R-Jud:
i’d extend that to being a thinking human. Twenty years ago, i lived over in Danville. it was afflicted with the same stupid as Luzerne County. Boy, the stories i could tell. Here are two:
Students at nearby Bloomsburg put on a production of Cabaret. Sans homosexuality. When I inquired why, I was told: "Too controversial."
While at a university committee meeting, I witnessed a discussion of the phenomenon of "conscience raising". But, I said, isn’t it "consciousness raising"? No, came the answer.
Leaving rural PA was the best thing i ever did.
Lavocat
EVERY child that was adjudicated a juvenile delinquent by these criminals should not only appeal their respective adjudications and dispositions, but their respective records should be expunged.
These criminals (the "judges") should be looking at twenty years each EASY. Rat bastards.
Better yet, each of my clients should get five minutes alone with these judges in the Death Match Cage.
kay
@Lavocat:
They overturned and expunged, en masse. Hundreds.
No knowing waiver of counsel, so the guilty pleas were invalid.
Will
Those judges deserve the worst fate imaginable: time served in a privately-run prison. You know, where they cut back on perks like food, water and medical treatment to let the invisible hand of the market do its thing.
Jamie
"Judge Arthur Grim"
"Judge… Grim"
Let me know when y’all decide to rename the place to Mega-City One, yeah?
Evolutionary
@Jamie: said "Judge.. Grim"
Actually Judge Grim is the person from my county who was called in to review the mess and help the process of resolving this revolting scandal.
steve
I’m sure these kids had all done something wrong, though. Those who have nothing to hide have nothing to fear.
Really? You believe this? I can tell that you are still in the recovery stage, you know, as in a “Recovering Republican”. Only a Republican would say something like that. Like a recovering alcoholic, you have to be careful of your responses to certain stimuli, otherwise you might start acting like a Republican again.
richard
Steve, maybe he was joking, like being ironic? You think?