Two former Pennsylvania judges who orchestrated a scheme to send children to for-profit jails in exchange for kickbacks were ordered to pay more than $200 million to hundreds of people they victimized in one of the worst judicial scandals in U.S. history.
via: Complex
As U.S. District Judge Christopher Conner wrote in court documents this week, former Pennsylvania judges Mark Ciavarella and Michael Conahan “orchestrated” the closing of juvenile facilities in 2002 in an effort to “make way” for new detention centers, the construction of which would see them both amassing financial benefits.
In fact, the two convicted felons were previously said to have received $2.8 million over several years from a commercial builder and an attorney involved with the centers in question. As the Associated Press noted in their report on the damages decision this week, the larger story surrounding the two men ultimately came to be widely referred to as the “kids for cash” scandal.
“Plaintiffs are the tragic human casualties of a scandal of epic proportions,” Judge Conner said of the legal action hundreds of victims had taken in response to what Ciavarella and Conahan did, adding that the law is “powerless” when it comes to giving back lost time, although this awarding of damages will hopefully bring “a measure of closure.”
After the “kids for cash” plot was made public, state courts tossed out thousands of juvenile convictions.
In a statement shared Wednesday, a rep for the Juvenile Law Center—a nonprofit based in Pennsylvania—noted the lifelong ramifications of the two former judges’ “despicable plan” of robbing victims of key childhood years.
Judges Conahan and Ciavarella – both criminally convicted and sentenced for their conduct— hatched a despicable plan that robbed these young people of not just months, but in some cases years of their childhood by locking them up in juvenile correctional facilities for
— Juvenile Law Center (@JuvLaw1975) August 17, 2022
“We applaud the court for listening and finally doing justice,” the rep added.
the most trivial kinds of behavior. And they did it for money.
We applaud the brave victims, now adults, who came forward to recall and share their stories, many still carrying pain from these events. We applaud the court for listening and finally doing justice. We applaud
— Juvenile Law Center (@JuvLaw1975) August 17, 2022
All told, Ciavarella and Conahan have now been ordered to pay compensatory damages of more than $106 million and punitive damages of $100 million. However, it’s currently believed to be unlikely that victims will receive much of this amount.
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