Two judges have been prosecuted for taking bribes to put children in for-profit prisons. First the judges misused their power to get the county-run juvenile detention center to close, allegedly in exchange for $2.8 million from the co-owner and builder of two for-profit jails. But even worse than that, the judges are believed to have used their positions to sentence children to be sent to these for-profit facilities, making the decisions based on considerations personal financial gain, or trying to benefit the owner of these facilities in exchange for the bribe money. These are children who probably would not have been otherwise been sent to these juvenile facilities if not for the corruption of the judges. The two judges were in Pennsylvania, Mark Ciavarella, 72, and Michael Conahan, 70. US District Judge Christopher Conner has awarded almost 300 plaintiffs in a lawsuit against the judges, with $106million in compensatory damages and $100million in punitive damages. The victims are "the tragic human casualties of a scandal of epic proportions", Conner wrote in the judgment explanation. "Their cruel and despicable actions victimized a vulnerable population of young people, many of whom were suffering from emotional issues and mental health concerns." Ciaverella presided over juvenile court and held to a zero-tolerance policy that resulted in many children, as young as eight years old, winding up at the for-profit facilities, Pennsylvania Child Care or Western Pennsylvania Child Care. Many of the kids were sent for minor infractions like smoking, truancy, jay walking and petty theft, and had no prior violations. Ciaverella was sentenced to 28-years in prison. Conohan was sentenced to more than 17-year sentence but was released to home confinement with six years left in 2020 due to the coronavirus pandemic. After the scheme was uncovered, the state Supreme Court threw out about 4,000 juvenile convictions that more than 2,300 children had been subjected to under these judges. "To have an order from a federal court that recognizes the gravity of what the judges did to these children in the midst of some of the most critical years of their childhood and development matters enormously," said Marsha Levick, a lawyer for the plaintiffs, who is the co-founder of the Juvenile Law Center in Philadelphia. Pennsylvania: US judges took millions in bribes to send kids to prison | Metro News, Jessica Kwong, August 18, 2022
A mother had an angry emotional outburst against the judge she blames for her son's suicide. Fonzo's son was 17 and an all-star wrestler with a chance at a college scholarship when he landed in Ciavarella's courtroom on a minor drug paraphernalia charge. Though the teen, Edward Kenzakoski, had no prior criminal record, he spent months at the private lockups and a wilderness camp and missed his senior year of high school. Kenzakoski emerged an angry, bitter and depressed young man. He committed suicide last June at the age of 23. "He was just never the same. He couldn't recover," Fonzo said. Fonzo was at work when friends started texting her about the verdict in Ciavarella's federal racketeering trial -- guilty on 12 of 39 counts. She rushed to the courthouse because she had heard that Ciavarella was going to be taken out in handcuffs. Instead, the disgraced judge was allowed to remain free pending sentencing. "My kid's not here anymore!" she screamed. "He's dead! Because of him! He ruined my life! I'd like him to go to hell and rot there forever! Do you remember me? Do you remember me? Do you remember my son, an all-star wrestler? He's gone. He shot himself in the heart. You scumbag!" Prosecutors alleged that Ciavarella and a second judge took more than $2 million in bribes from the builder of the PA Child Care and Western PA Child Care detention centers and extorted hundreds of thousands of dollars from their owner. Ciavarella sent youth offenders to the private lockups while he was taking payments, ordering detention for minor offenses and routinely depriving juveniles of basic legal protections, including the right to counsel, according to a government panel that investigated the scandal. The Pennsylvania Supreme Court threw out some 4,000 convictions issued by Ciavarella. Marsha Levick, co-founder and chief counsel of the Philadelphia-based Juvenile Law Center, which blew the whistle on Ciavarella's harsh treatment of juveniles years before he was charged, said virtually no other judge would have ordered Fonzo's son to be locked up on such a minor charge. Mom blames son's suicide on Luzerne County judge in 'kids for cash' case - pennlive.com
