When being young is a crime... by Fremdfirma

REAL WORLD EVENT DISCUSSIONS

When being young is a crime...

POSTED BY: FREMDFIRMA
UPDATED: Thursday, February 24, 2011 06:24
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VIEWED: 1676
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Thursday, February 12, 2009 12:56 PM

Then everyone's a criminal.

Hoo boy, this one's gonna be a brick-passer for that sumbitch Powell, let's see him weasel his way out of THIS one.

Justice denied: Pa. judges accused of taking kickbacks to send youngsters to juvenile prison
http://www.startribune.com/nation/39444517.html?elr=KArks:DCiUMEaPc:Ui
acyKUUr

WILKES-BARRE, Pa. - For years, the juvenile court system in Wilkes-Barre operated like a conveyor belt: Youngsters were brought before judges without a lawyer, given hearings that lasted only a minute or two, and then sent off to juvenile prison for months for minor offenses.

The explanation, prosecutors say, was corruption on the bench.

In one of the most shocking cases of courtroom graft on record, two Pennsylvania judges have been charged with taking millions of dollars in kickbacks to send teenagers to two privately run youth detention centers.

"I've never encountered, and I don't think that we will in our lifetimes, a case where literally thousands of kids' lives were just tossed aside in order for a couple of judges to make some money," said Marsha Levick, an attorney with the Philadelphia-based Juvenile Law Center, which is representing hundreds of youths sentenced in Wilkes-Barre.

Prosecutors say Luzerne County Judges Mark Ciavarella and Michael Conahan took $2.6 million in payoffs to put juvenile offenders in lockups run by PA Child Care LLC and a sister company, Western PA Child Care LLC. The judges were charged on Jan. 26 and removed from the bench by the Pennsylvania Supreme Court shortly afterward.

No company officials have been charged, but the investigation is still going on.

The high court, meanwhile, is looking into whether hundreds or even thousands of sentences should be overturned and the juveniles' records expunged.

Among the offenders were teenagers who were locked up for months for stealing loose change from cars, writing a prank note and possessing drug paraphernalia. Many had never been in trouble before. Some were imprisoned even after probation officers recommended against it.

Many appeared without lawyers, despite the U.S. Supreme Court's landmark 1967 ruling that children have a constitutional right to counsel.

The judges are scheduled to plead guilty to fraud Thursday in federal court. Their plea agreements call for sentences of more than seven years behind bars.

Ciavarella, 58, who presided over Luzerne County's juvenile court for 12 years, acknowledged last week in a letter to his former colleagues, "I have disgraced my judgeship. My actions have destroyed everything I worked to accomplish and I have only myself to blame." Ciavarella, though, has denied he got kickbacks for sending youths to prison.

Conahan, 56, has remained silent about the case.

Many Pennsylvania counties contract with privately run juvenile detention centers, paying them either a fixed overall fee or a certain amount per youth, per day.

In Luzerne County, prosecutors say, Conahan shut down the county-run juvenile prison in 2002 and helped the two companies secure rich contracts worth tens of millions of dollars, at least some of that dependent on how many juveniles were locked up.

One of the contracts - a 20-year agreement with PA Child Care worth an estimated $58 million - was later canceled by the county as exorbitant.

The judges are accused of taking payoffs between 2003 and 2006.

Robert J. Powell co-owned PA Child Care and Western PA Child Care until June. His attorney, Mark Sheppard, said his client was the victim of an extortion scheme.

"Bob Powell never solicited a nickel from these judges and really was a victim of their demands," he said. "These judges made it very plain to Mr. Powell that he was going to be required to pay certain monies."

For years, youth advocacy groups complained that Ciavarella was ridiculously harsh and ran roughshod over youngsters' constitutional rights. Ciavarella sent a quarter of his juvenile defendants to detention centers from 2002 to 2006, compared with a statewide rate of one in 10.

The criminal charges confirmed the advocacy groups' worst suspicions and have called into question all the sentences he pronounced.

Hillary Transue did not have an attorney, nor was she told of her right to one, when she appeared in Ciavarella's courtroom in 2007 for building a MySpace page that lampooned her assistant principal.

Her mother, Laurene Transue, worked for 16 years in the child services department of another county and said she was certain Hillary would get a slap on the wrist. Instead, Ciavarella sentenced her to three months; she got out after a month, with help from a lawyer.

"I felt so disgraced for a while, like, what do people think of me now?" said Hillary, now 17 and a high school senior who plans to become an English teacher.

Laurene Transue said Ciavarella "was playing God. And not only was he doing that, he was getting money for it. He was betraying the trust put in him to do what is best for children."

Kurt Kruger, now 22, had never been in trouble with the law until the day police accused him of acting as a lookout while his friend shoplifted less than $200 worth of DVDs from Wal-Mart. He said he didn't know his friend was going to steal anything.

Kruger pleaded guilty before Ciavarella and spent three days in a company-run juvenile detention center, plus four months at a *youth wilderness camp run by a different operator.

"Never in a million years did I think that I would actually get sent away. I was completely destroyed," said Kruger, who later dropped out of school. He said he wants to get his record expunged, earn his high school equivalency diploma and go to college.

"I got a raw deal, and yeah, it's not fair," he said, "but now it's 100 times bigger than me."

*- Polite Euphamism for "Sent off to be tortured at a concentration camp".
http://www.rd.com/your-america-inspiring-people-and-stories/
teen-boot-camp-a-deadly-decision/article15302.html
(spaced link)

Also, justice was found today for Faith Finley, such as it is.
http://www.mansfieldnewsjournal.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=20099020
8003

Despite the death being ruled a homicide, all the workers in question got was fired, cause, yanno, teens aren't really PEOPLE, right ?

And they will no doubt find employment elsewhere within the industry.

Some justice...

Although HR911 Passed the House Committee yesterday, we get enough behind it, we can put a stop to this shit on a major level.
http://edlabor.house.gov/newsroom/2009/02/house-education-committee-ap
pr.shtml

You wonder where so many of our social issues come from, step down into my world for an hour or so.

You won't be wonderin no more.

-Frem

It cannot be said enough, those who do not learn from history, are doomed to endlessly repeat it

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Friday, February 18, 2011 2:25 PM

FREMDFIRMA

GUILTY.

Pa. judge guilty of racketeering in kickback case
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20110218/ap_on_re_us/us_courthouse_kickback
s

And there's more where that came from, on top of some downright bizarre legal wrangling, and a citizens commission that is appointed once again from polticians instead of citizens, grrr.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kids_for_cash_scandal

But despite that they finally, FINALLY got RICO'd..
(And yes, some penniesworth of THAT buck is mine)
What offends me the worst is that they made this all about the money.

Hardly a mention of the abuse and mistreatment of the kids, the horrors they faced - too bad, so sad, sorry about that...
But that they made a buck and didn't share, oh now THAT was the horrible crime, wasn't it now ?

Destroying the lives of kids is all just fun n games to our justice system, our society, ain't like they're human, ain't like they're PEOPLE, is it ?

You ask me, they oughta send these fucks TO one of them hellcamps, and if you can't find one of the privatized ones anymore, just pick one run by the sickos of the Texas Youth Commission, cause juvie "justice" runs their own set, which is of course next in line for the wrecking ball.

-Frem
I do not serve the Blind God.

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Monday, February 21, 2011 6:02 PM

RIONAEIRE

Beir bua agus beannacht

Yeah that's bad.

"A completely coherant River means writers don't deliver" KatTaya

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Monday, February 21, 2011 6:41 PM

KANEMAN

Hilarious. You are in one thread siding with the public union thugs...then start another thread in which you are mad that a judge would cave in and send same thugs a "product"....lol. Man, you are as slippery as an old whore.

Dah!!! Why do you think short term politicians criminalize EVERYTHING? I'll give you a hint peg leg......Because the ones with the actual power (Long term union bosses) make sure the idiots they suck dues from have jobs...police, CO's, figherfighters, teachers, etc...

Why does the teachers union fight vouchers?
Why can one go to jail for argueing?

Blah....you know the answer.

Those companies are unionized, and states do it all the time....wake up one leg

Most people in prison are there for non violent crime. Most prisons are run by unionized public servants, most people are sent to prison by...Elected prosocutors and judges...with? You guessed it union backing....

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Monday, February 21, 2011 7:26 PM

RIONAEIRE

Beir bua agus beannacht

I know Frem doesn't need me to defend him, but pa-lease Kaneman, the use of personal attacks that are completely unrelated to the post you disagree with is lacking in maturity and basic humanity. It would make more sense if you said something general and didn't bring physical differences into it, again, pa-lease. No one can see your side of the fence if you put ugliness of behavior in their way. Come on.

"A completely coherant River means writers don't deliver" KatTaya

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Tuesday, February 22, 2011 12:30 AM

FREMDFIRMA

Quote:
The mother of a former defendant who was jailed by Ciavarella — and who later killed himself — confronted the judge on the courthouse steps, screaming obscenities and even poking him as he and his attorneys held a news conference.

"My kid's not here anymore!" yelled Sandy Fonzo, whose son committed suicide last year at age 23. "He's dead! Because of him! He ruined my ... life! I'd like him to go to hell and rot there forever!"

Ciavarella glanced at Fonzo, then turned his back.

Fonzo's son, Edward Kenzakowski, was a 17-year-old all-star wrestler with no prior record when he landed in Ciavarella's courtroom for possession of drug paraphernalia. She said her son never recovered from the months he served at the detention centers and a wilderness camp.

Tears streaming down her face, Fonzo said she couldn't believe Ciavarella was allowed to walk out of the courthouse.

"There's no justice, there's not. He's never going to get what he deserves," she said. "I just wanted to see him handcuffed and taken out. But when I saw him just being released with that stupid smirk on his face ..."

This is why I am so damn bitter they made it all about the money - the percentage of kids who kill themselves within one year of release from these hellcamps is sickeningly high, so in effect this fucker murdered them.
But no, that's all ok, just fun n games, right ?

But make a buck and don't share the largess, and woe betide...
Long as our priorities are that fucked up, so too will be our kids.

-Frem
I do not serve the Blind God.

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Tuesday, February 22, 2011 12:37 AM

PIRATENEWS

John Lee, conspiracy therapist at Hollywood award-winner History Channel-mocked SNL-spoofed PirateNew.org wooHOO!!!!!!

Sad thing is, this is how ALL courts operate.

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Tuesday, February 22, 2011 4:31 AM

CANTTAKESKY

Quote:
Originally posted by piratenews:
Sad thing is, this is how ALL courts operate.

I am so cynical I agree with PN.

But not only me. They depicted this on a TV show called Raising the Bar, written by a former public defender. In the show, the PDs were awesome caring people, so there was hope. But in real life, we all know PDs suck. There is no hope for anyone who goes to court.

They also had an episode on Leverage, specifically about kickbacks to judges.

-------
Hell, the only reason the Government hates crime at all is that it despises competition. - Frem

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Wednesday, February 23, 2011 6:34 AM

FREMDFIRMA

Yeah, PN is prettymuch right about that one.

This bit of circlejerk fingerpointing is only noteable in that they took *ANY* issue with the cops, prosecutor, and judge lying their asses off in order to fabricate a case.

Ex-judge gets most charges dismissed in perjury case
http://www.freep.com/article/20110223/NEWS01/102230359/Ex-judge-gets-m
ost-charges-dismissed-perjury-case

And of course they'll get off easy thanks to our two-tier caste system "justice", obviously - but consider these endless and ever growing "isolated incidents" in a more honest fashion, like a vermin infestation, for every one you see, there's a hundred you don't.
At which point you begin to realize, they're not isolated incidents at all, but institutional policy.
At which point you begin to question the legitimacy of *ANY* of it...

Thus are Anarchists born, people - when the state proves out it cannot be trusted, when religion and society offer oppression and malice instead of salvation and comradeship, folks at the crisis point do one of two things.
Either they embrace the path of sociopathy and service the system like a two bit whore, or they cast aside their belief in it and connect with each other on a personal level without regard to that system.

And that is the difference between statists, and anarchists, in a nutshell.

-Frem

I do not serve the Blind God.

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Wednesday, February 23, 2011 5:07 PM

CHRISISALL

Quote:
Originally posted by Fremdfirma:
when the state proves out it cannot be trusted, when religion and society offer oppression and malice instead of salvation and comradeship

Really, when have they done differently?

The laughing Chrisisall

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Thursday, February 24, 2011 5:34 AM

FREMDFIRMA

Indeed, which is kinda the entire point - doing the same thing over and over while expecting different results is the very definition of insanity.

In the meantime I am laughing my ass off about THIS.

Belgium’s political paralysis becoming an embarrassment
http://www.wenatcheeworld.com/news/2011/feb/22/belgiums-political-para
lysis-becoming-an/

Quote:
Through most of that time, few Belgians, let alone the outside world, even seemed to notice. Trains continue to run, waffles are still being grilled on street corners, and people window-shop along centuries-old arcades. Tourists still sample mussels, go for canal rides in Bruges and snap up Tintin souvenirs, blissfully unaware of a political crisis.

Thus raises the question among many of why, exactly do we supposedly NEED such berks ?

I was curious to know what Jackie (aka Princess Jaqueline De Croy) thought, but she's refused to comment cause the royals seem to be laying low on this one - especially after what happened LAST time...

-Frem

I do not serve the Blind God.

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Thursday, February 24, 2011 5:42 AM

CHRISISALL

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Thursday, February 24, 2011 6:24 AM

KANEMAN

Talk about sockpuppets?

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