The Pennsylvania Supreme Court reversed itself and decided to preserve the approximately 6500 files of the juveniles who were sentenced by former judge Mark Ciavarella who was charged with receiving kickback from a private prison company in exchange for sending juveniles to the prison. Last month the Supreme Court vacated the juveniles’ convictions. When a conviction is vacated the normal procedure is to destroy the files but by maintaining the files the Supreme Court is allowing the juveniles to sue Ciavarella in Federal Court for the injuries they sustained.

Former Judges Mark A. Ciavarella Jr. of the Luzerne County, Pennsylvania juvenile court and Michael T. Conahan of the Luzerne County Court of Common Pleas plead guilty to wire fraud and tax evasion. The pleas were a result of an investigation which showed that they accepted kickbacks in exchange for sending juveniles to a private jail. They entered into plea agreements under which each would do 87 months in Federal prisons. U. S District Judge Edward M. Kosik rejected the plea agreement and gave the defendants ten days to decide whether they want to withdraw their pleas and go to trial or whether they want to let the judge sentence them to a prison term in excess of the 87 months. They are facing a maximum sentence of 25 years,

Judge Kosic found Conahan and Caivarella to be insufficiently contrite. Conahan refused to discuss his motives for taking money from PA Child Care, the owner of the private juvenile jail in his interview with the U. S. Probation Office. Ciavarella, in a television interview, apologized to everyone except the children who he sent to the jail. He said, “I didn’t do anything wrong relative to any juvenile. I never took a dime for sending a kid away. All I ever did is what I thought was in the best interest of that child,” Although according to Judge Kosic there is plenty of evidence to the contrary.

In February we reported about two juvenile judges who benefited financially from incarcerating juveniles. Former Luzerne County (Wilkes Barre) Court of Common Plea Judges Mark Ciavarella and Michael Conahan received kickbacks from a private jail in exchange for their help in getting the private jail the contract for incarcerating juveniles.

The case is not over. In fact they have not been sentenced yet thought they have signed plea agreements requiring them to spend 87 months each in prison.

Recently the Pennsylvania Supreme Court expunged the records of the 6500 juveniles who appeared before Ciavarella. But in expunging the records the court ordered that all copies of the files be destroyed. Four hundred of the juveniles have filed suit against Ciavarella and if the files are destroyed the juveniles will be unable to obtain damages for their unjust sentences and incarceration. Eventually the Supreme Court agreed to prevent the destruction of the 400 files of the juveniles who have filed suit but this will not help the other 6100 juveniles that appeared before Ciavarella in a potential class action suit.