A Pennsylvania judge convicted of accepting bribes from owners of private juvenile detention facilities in exchange for keeping the facility well-populated has lost an appeal. Judge Mark A. Ciavarella is set to begin serving his 28-year sentence.

Following a federal investigation, Ciavarella and fellow "Kids for Cash" Judge Michael Conahan were found to have received $2.6 million from the owners of two facilities, run by PA Child Care and sister company Western PA Child Care.

Ciavarella's efforts to ensure that the juvenile facilities remained full included sentencing Hillary Transue, then a high school sophomore, to three months in jail for making fun of her school's principal online. Other instances include a seventh-grader jailed for 48 days for throwing a piece of steak at his mother's boyfriend and an 11-year-old boy sentenced for calling the police after being locked out of the house by his mother.

According to BoingBoing:

The judges helped the detention centers land a county contract worth $58 million. Then their alleged scheme was to guarantee the operators a steady income by detaining juveniles, often on petty stuff...[The Juvenile Law Center in Philadelphia, PA] cited hundreds of examples where teens accused of minor mischief were pressured to waive their right to lawyers, and then shipped to a detention center.

The Pennsylvania Supreme Court threw out hundreds of convictions issued by the two judges after their scheme came to light.

 

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