published18. August 2022, 20:09
«Kids for Cash»-SkandalCorrupt judges sent hundreds of children to juvenile prison for money
They ruined the lives of hundreds of young people: two US judges sent children as young as eight years of age to prison for the smallest offenses for money. Now the victims have been awarded high compensation payments.
… and Michael Conahan sent hundreds of children to juvenile detention for bribes.
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The privately run PA Child Care detention center in Pittston: This is where many of the “offenders” were locked up.
Triblive.com
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In the early 2000s, two US judges sent hundreds of children to juvenile detention centers for minor misdemeanors.
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For this, Mark Ciavarella and Michael Conahan received bribes from the operators of the privately run institutions.
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Both judges were sentenced to long prison terms in 2009.
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Now their victims have been awarded 200 million compensation.
Two judges in the US state of Pennsylvania illegally jailed hundreds of children for paying bribes and now have to pay millions in fines. The court awarded the nearly 300 victims more than $200 million in a civil complaint once morest the two judges. Judge Christopher Conner wrote that the plaintiffs were the tragic victims of a scandal “of epic proportions”.
Judges Michael T. Conahan and Mark Ciavarella first used their powers to shut down a public juvenile detention center. They then collected payments totaling $2.8 million from the builder and co-owner of two private for-profit prisons. Ciavarella presided over the juvenile court and enforced a zero-tolerance policy that guaranteed large numbers of children were held in the two prisons. The scandal became known to the public as “Kids for Cash”.
Marek Ciavarella showed no mercy in his actions. Some of the children he ordered to be detained were as young as eight years old. Their crimes: petty theft, smoking in the schoolyard, skipping class, and the like. The minors were often taken away in handcuffs for their petty crimes and were not even given the opportunity to say goodbye to their families. The case finally came to light in 2008.
ruined the lives of the victims
The two judges broke their oath and abused public trust, it said in Tuesday’s verdict. The Pennsylvania Supreme Court vacated 4,000 juvenile convictions following revealing their crimes. Ciavarella, now 72, is serving a 28-year sentence. Conahan (70), who was sentenced to more than 17 years in prison, was released into house arrest in 2020 because of the corona pandemic.
It is unclear whether the victims, who are now of legal age, will ever see any of the damages awarded to them. An attorney for the plaintiffs, Marsha Levick, said Wednesday she mightn’t imagine there was enough money. Several of the previous victims died from drug overdoses or took their own lives. Others report panic attacks. “My life was ruined and I was not allowed to see my future,” said one of 282 victims who testified to Judge Conner.
(AP/trx)
