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[WASHINGTON, 17 February 2009] — Two former judges in Pennsylvania have admitted to receiving more than 2.6 million dollars in pay-offs from companies that run private prisons for sending them minors for detention or disciplinary camps. The admissions, which were made by judges Mark Ciavarella and Michael Conahan in a plea agreement filed in federal court last week, has sparked protests by outraged parents and relatives of youths whose cases were handled by the judges. In the plea agreement, Ciavarella and Conahan admitted they "abused their position ... by secretly deriving more than 2,600,000 (dollars) in income ... in exchange for official actions." Those actions included "entering into agreements guaranteeing placement of juvenile offenders with PA Child Care, LLC (and) facilitating the construction of juvenile detention facilities," according to the document. Pennsylvania Child Care and Western Pennsylvania Child Care also stood to make tens of millions of dollars from the scheme, the plea document said. They were charged with wire fraud and conspiracy to commit fraud against the United States. The Juvenile Law Centre, an advocacy organisation for youths in trouble with the law, will file complaints from several dozen families who learned that their child was unjustly detained, a spokesman told AFP Monday. Some families have filed complaints separately. More than 5,000 adolescents between the ages of 13 and 18 were found guilty between 2002 and 2007 when the judges were active in Luzerne county, an impoverished former mining area where the majority of residents are white. Of those, more than 2,000 were ordered sent to detention, said Marie Roda, a spokeswoman for Juvenile Law Centre. Many were from families with little money or education, which made them "easy targets," she said. "A lot of them didn't have lawyers and when they asked for a public defender and they were told it would be weeks to wait," she said. The judges face at least seven years in prison under the plea agreement. But the federal judge hearing their case could sentence them to up to 25 years in prison. A decision is not expected for several months. "Families have been calling non-stop since this came out but not all of the families have signed onto the suit yet," Roda said. "We don't know how many families it's going to be. We know some of them are not going to file. They just want it to go away, they just want to let it go," she said. The Pennsylvania Supreme Court on Wednesday named a special judge from outside the area to review all the cases tried by the tainted judges. The cases include those of a youth detained for nine months for stealing a four-dollar jar of spices, and a 13-year-old who was sent to "boot camp" for several weekends for exploring an abandoned building. In many cases, youths were sent to prisons far from their families, often against the recommendation of probation officers. Further information
pdf: http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5hduSAjtNhXUnEMkNtRK9q...