Pages

April 29, 2013

Judge sentenced to 28 years incarceration for "selling" juvenile offenders to private prison over minor infractions


Accused of perpetrating a “profound evil,” former Pennsylvania judge Mark Ciavarella Jr. has been sentenced to 28 years in prison for illegally accepting money from a juvenile-prison developer while he spent years incarcerating thousands of young people.
 
Prosecutors said Ciavarella sent juveniles to jail as part of a “kids for cash” scheme involving Robert Mericle, builder of the PA and Western PA Child Care juvenile detention centers. The ex-judge was convicted in February of 12 counts that included racketeering, money laundering, mail fraud and tax evasion.
 
In addition to his prison sentence, Ciavarella was ordered to pay nearly $1.2 million in restitution.
 
At his sentencing, Ciavarella acknowledged his illegal acceptance of money from Mericle. But he denied ever jailing a juvenile in exchange for money.
 
Once the case against Ciavarella surfaced, special investigative panels began reviewing cases he handled from 2003 to 2008. The Pennsylvania Supreme Court concluded that he denied about 5,000 juveniles, some as young as ten, their constitutional rights, leading to the vacating of their convictions.
 
Among the young people exploited by Ciavarella were 15-year-old Hillary Transue, who was sentenced to three months at a juvenile detention center for mocking an assistant principal on a MySpace page; and 13-year-old Shane Bly, who was sent to a boot camp for two weekends after being accused of trespassing in a vacant building.
 
Another judge, Michael T. Conahan, used his position to shut down the county-run juvenile detention center and redirect juvenile detainees to the private prisons. He pleaded guilty to racketeering conspiracy.

12 comments:

  1. The State, Counties, and Cities owe these BRUTALLY TORTURED CHILDREN millions & millions!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Dirty, filthy bastards, ruining these children's lives for money! I hope he rots in hell!

    ReplyDelete
  3. He should have been given life with no chance of parole.

    ReplyDelete
  4. This is only a small example of racketering in our judicial system. I've heard from credible People about the courts in California being totally corrupted beyond one's wildest imaginations, making this racketering judge look like a newbie.

    ReplyDelete
  5. He should serve the amount of time that he sentenced all those kids too. 28 years is not long enough for all the lives he has negatively affected. This issue wouldn't even exist if we didn't have things like Privately owned prisons that are funded by the taxpayers.

    ReplyDelete
  6. I was Railroaded by the same system in 1976 in Luzerne County Pennsylvania.This system is so corrupt.. Please see lawlessamerica.org; publiccitizen.org; Iviewit.tv;amendmentone.com;disbarthefloridabar.com.
    There are many more sites

    If you go to :www.LarryHohol.com you will find info about me and the book I wrote about Luzerne County. If you look under the "Book" button you will also find a number of radio and TV interviews that shed more light on Luzerne County.

    ReplyDelete
  7. BASTARD GUT HIM !

    OBAMA

    ReplyDelete
  8. This is a foreseeable consequence of private, prisons-for-profit.

    ReplyDelete
  9. See now.. there ARE people out there that are worse than pedophiles.

    ReplyDelete
  10. What happend to the juvenile-prison developer ?

    He/she should get at least the same amount of time

    in prison!

    ReplyDelete
  11. he's not the only corrupt judge in PA stealing and selling kids.

    ReplyDelete
  12. Have just encountered your page and I guess you should be complimented for this piece. More power to you!

    ReplyDelete