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XnavxeMiyyep
Feb 14, 2009, 03:33 PM
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/13/us/13judge.html?_r=1
Prosecutors say Judges Michael T. Conahan, and Mark A. Ciavarella Jr., above, took kickbacks to send teenagers to detention centers.

“In my entire career, I’ve never heard of anything remotely approaching this,” said Senior Judge Arthur E. Grim, who was appointed by the State Supreme Court this week to determine what should be done with the estimated 5,000 juveniles who have been sentenced by Judge Ciavarella since the scheme started in 2003. Many of them were first-time offenders and some remain in detention.

If the court agrees to the plea agreement, both judges will serve 87 months in federal prison and resign from the bench and bar. They are expected to be sentenced in the next several months. Lawyers for both men declined to comment.

87 months? That's only seven years and three months. They should be serving the combined time of all the people they wrongfully sentenced, and assuming they all got at least one month, that's 5000+ months (416 years and 8 months) each.


The answers became a bit clearer on Thursday as the judge, Mark A. Ciavarella Jr., and a colleague, Michael T. Conahan, appeared in federal court in Scranton, Pa., to plead guilty to wire fraud and income tax fraud for taking more than $2.6 million in kickbacks to send teenagers to two privately run youth detention centers run by PA Child Care and a sister company, Western PA Child Care.

Also, private prisons? When did this happen?

EDIT:
Wire fraud and income tax fraud? Nothing for kidnapping or false imprisonment?



remmy
Feb 15, 2009, 03:22 PM
Will those that have been sent to this private detention centre be released and have their records cleared as it seems that they never got a fair trial?

Dont Hurt Me
Feb 15, 2009, 03:35 PM
I bet the good old boy system gives these guys near nothing in a sentence. The legal and political system we have favors those who manipulate and operate with in it. Ill be shocked if these two judges get any time in prison.

mkrishnan
Feb 15, 2009, 03:46 PM
It seems to me that the problem, in these cases, is the shielding the justice system provides itself from the parties it wrongs. When the legal system unfairly imprisons someone, it doesn't usually have to pay large fines -- if I were for some reason imprisoned unjustly for the next decade, and suppose I have an earning potential of an average of $200,000 per annum over those ten years, then the justice system, on my release, doesn't give me the $2M in revenues I lost, let alone punitive damages or projected future loss of revenue after the time of release.

I know it would stink for the taxpayers, but this would be the start of fixing this type of problem. If the justice system were open to millions in punitive damages to the families of children affected, it would be much more motivated to change, including creating harsher penalties for miscreant judges.

I don't personally approve of the death penalty either philosophically or financially, but I think that a just legal system should enshrine as its very worst possible domestic crime when a public servant abuses their role in the criminal judicio-executive systems. Crimes like these fundamentally destroy the public trust in government and are outdone only by outright treason.

Ugg
Feb 15, 2009, 04:20 PM
Also, private prisons? When did this happen?



Private prisons have been around for a long time. They're a product of Reagan's privatization efforts. Let's hope the prison owners get sentenced as well and that the prisons are closed.

XnavxeMiyyep
Feb 15, 2009, 06:05 PM
I don't personally approve of the death penalty either philosophically or financially, but I think that a just legal system should enshrine as its very worst possible domestic crime when a public servant abuses their role in the criminal judicio-executive systems. Crimes like these fundamentally destroy the public trust in government and are outdone only by outright treason.
(emphasis mine)
Agreed. Actually, I think this should be equivalent to treason.

Private prisons have been around for a long time. They're a product of Reagan's privatization efforts. Let's hope the prison owners get sentenced as well and that the prisons are closed.
Ugh. Every time I learn something new about Reagan, I hate him even more.

Will those that have been sent to this private detention centre be released and have their records cleared as it seems that they never got a fair trial?
Hopefully, but who knows?


I bet the good old boy system gives these guys near nothing in a sentence. The legal and political system we have favors those who manipulate and operate with in it. Ill be shocked if these two judges get any time in prison.
You're probably right.:(