Judge Gets Paid to Incarcerate Juveniles
Ronald Reagan is well known for his statement: “Government is not the solution to the problem, Government is the problem”. And so began decades GOP obsession with privatization of what once were exclusively government responsibilities. The idea that the “FOR PROFIT” sector of the economy always does thing better is just plain wrong and even dangerous.
Federal prosecutors convicted Mark Ciavarella, a former juvenile court judge, on $1 million in bribes from the builder of the PA Child Care and Western PA Child Care detention centers and extorting hundreds of thousands of dollars from the facilities' co-owner.
Pennsylvania had to expunge the records of over 6000 juveniles as these judges wrongly convicted juveniles in this “kids for cash” program! First time offenders of relatively small offenses were whisked off to detention centers to line the pockets of these judges. So when detention centers make enough profit so that judges can be paid to supply kids it gets so ugly.
Ask Sandy Fonzo. Her son’s spirit was so broken by the sentence handed down by Ciavarella that her son ended up committing suicide. Sandy’s life was forever changed and now the judge is looking to get the minimum sentence.
