Kids-for-cash judges ordered to pay more than $200M

[Eugene]

Source: Associated Press

Kids-for-cash judges ordered to pay more than $200M

By MICHAEL RUBINKAM
August 17, 2022

Two Pennsylvania judges who orchestrated a scheme to send children to for-profit jails in exchange for kickbacks were ordered to pay more than $200 million to hundreds who fell victim to their crimes.

U.S. District Judge Judge Christopher Conner awarded $106 million in compensatory damages and $100 million in punitive damages to nearly 300 plaintiffs in a long-running civil suit against the judges.

In what came to be known as the kids-for-cash scandal, Mark Ciavarella and another judge, Michael Conahan, shut down a county-run juvenile detention center and accepted $2.8 million in illegal payments from the builder and co-owner of two for-profit lockups. Ciavarella, who presided over juvenile court, pushed a zero-tolerance policy that guaranteed large numbers of kids would be sent to PA Child Care and its sister facility, Western PA Child Care.

Ciavarella ordered children as young as 8 to detention, many of them first-time offenders convicted of petty theft and other minor crimes. The judge often ordered youths he had found delinquent to be immediately shackled, handcuffed and taken away without giving them a chance to say goodbye to their families.

-snip-

Read more: https://apnews.com/article/crime-trending-news-government-and-politics-6f30f575dc739415af1e5b47b1be50f0

[Maraya1969]

1. They should be in jail.

This is not the first time this has happened; I remember reading about it with another judge years ago.

For-profit prisons need to be banned.

[Freddie]

2. This is probably the same case

Has been in the courts since around 2008.
My son made some juvenile mistakes around that time and thankfully we live in another part of the state and he was treated fairly. But this case came far too close to home. At the very LEAST all the victims should have gotten a free education at the state university of their choice.

[BComplex]

3. No, jail is too good for these creeps. They should be hung by the neck until dead.

Bastards!

[SouthernDem4ever]

9. Agreed. Tax money is just wasted on charlatans.

They need to be outlawed.

[FakeNoose]

21. The judges were convicted 9 years ago

They both got long prison sentences. One of the judges had his sentence commuted to home stay because of Covid.

This story is about the damages that have been awarded to the victims, who were all under-age and under-represented by legal counsel when this stuff happened. The harsh sentences they received from these judges adversely affected their young lives, I have no doubts.

Most of the victims are now young men, and many of them were minorities. The money damages are finally awarded now, but it may or may not ever get to the young men. I think THAT should be the real story.

[uponit7771]

4. What about the companies? Are they ordered to pay? tia

[hatrack]

5. Ciavarella got 28 years in the federal jug; Conahan got 17

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mark_Ciavarella

[MLAA]

6. Good

[dchill]

13. 👍

Good!

[BadGimp]

7. Hollywood, you listening?

When I first heard of this story a few years ago my blood began to boil.

Glad to learn both judges are in prison and there is at least a chance the victims will receive some compensation. At least they got some justice.

[Historic NY]

8. The other Conahan,was was released

Isn't that special treatment? Vaccinate him and send him back to finish his sentence

https://apnews.com/article/virus-outbreak-pa-state-wire-fl-state-wire-trump-investigations-prisons-60189fddb66c89e18963299a3c3995c7]

[dchill]

16. He SHOULD be sent to the facility he was sending kids to.

[2naSalit]

18. +1

[wnylib]

10. For profit prisons have absolutely NO place

in a democracy - ever.

[dchill]

17. That's one reason this is not a democracy.

[2naSalit]

19. +1

[keithbvadu2]

11. Child trafficking in another form?

[2naSalit]

20. Seems so. ...nt

[Lonestarblue]

12. All for-profit prisons need to be shut down. They are nothing more than scams taking tax dollars.

[Johnny2X2X]

15. Agree!

They are a special type of pure evil. To think you want to get rich off the suffering of others is just evil.

[Deminpenn]

14. Good

It was despicable what these two did.

[Demsrule86]

22. At least one of those kids killed themselves. I hope they are rotting in jail.

[BobTheSubgenius]

23. "...long-running civil suit...?"

You ain't seen the last of this. These shitsacks will grind this out in appeals court(s) for ages.

[Demovictory9]

24. I remember those monsters