Former Lucerne County, Pennsylvania juvenile court judges Mark Ciavarella and Michael Conahan were convicted last year for receiving over a million dollars in bribes from developers of private prisons for sending juveniles to their facilities.

Since the scandal came to light the Pennsylvania Supreme Court has reversed the convictions of 2,251 juveniles sentenced by Ciavarella and Conahan. Part of the Lucerne County system under Ciavarella and Conahan was that the juveniles were routinely denied the right of counsel. As a result not only were the judges allowed to ride roughshod over the juvenile’s rights but there was no one present in the courtroom to challenge the judges or to complain to the authorities. A new law that takes effect this month requires that counsel be appointed in most cases, But the state left it up to the local government to find money to hire the attorneys and many local governments, including Lucerne County, are having trouble finding the money in these economic times.

Another new law prevents judges from shackling juveniles in the courtroom. This demeaning act treated juveniles as criminals and it was a favorite activity of Cavarella.

Former Lucerne County, Pennsylvania Juvenile Judge Mark Ciavarella Jr. was sentenced to 28 years in Federal prison for excepting bribes from a company that builds private jails in exchange for sending children to the company’s facilities in the “Kids for Cash” scandal. He received a million dollar from the companies building the private jails and he attempted to extort money from the owner of the jails. A colleague on the bench, Michael Conahan, who is yet to be sentenced on related charges, received another million dollars.

In his rush to send juveniles to the private prisons he often denied juveniles their basic constitutional rights. He did not offer them appointed counsel and he demanded statements from them in violation of their right to remain silent. A fifteen year old girl was sentenced to three months for mocking the assistant principal of her school on her MySpace page and a 13 year old boy was locked up for trespassing in a vacant building. As a result the Pennsylvania Supreme Court reversed over 4000 convictions

Between 2003 and 2007 judges Mark Ciavarella was the chief juvenile judge in Lucerne County, Pennsylvania. During that time he arranged for the closing of the county juvenile facility and to send juvenile offenders to facilities owned by a private corporation, PA Child Care.

Ciavarella was a tough judge. He sent numerous children to the PA Child Care facilities. A ten year old was sent when she accidentally set her room on fire. Another girl was sent for shooting a bird at a police officer. A boy was sent for throwing a piece of steak at his mother’s boyfriend. Another girl was sent to the facility for mocking an assistant principal.

Not only was he a tough judge, but according to Federal prosecutors he was a corrupt judge. At the same time that he was sending children to PA Child Care facilities he was receiving kickbacks from the corporation. According to the prosecutors Ciavarella and Judge Michael Conahan received $2,600,000 in kickbacks.

He was charged, along with the presiding judge, Michael Conahan in 2009 and they plead guilty, each was to receive 87 months according to the plea bargain. However the chief Federal judge did not like the sweetheart deal and rejected it. Judge Edward M. Kosik found Ciavarella and Conahan insufficiently contrite. Conahan plead guilty, again, to one count and is awaiting sentencing. Ciavarella’a trial is set to start today.

Two Pennsylvania juvenile court judges were indicted for accepting kickbacks in exchange for sending children to a private jail.

Often former Luzerne County (Wilkes Barre) Court of Common Plea Judges Mark Ciavarella and Michael Conahan sentenced juveniles to the private jails without appointing lawyers for them on minor offenses. Among the charges for which children were placed in the private jail were for stealing loose change from cars, writing prank notes, possession of drug paraphernalia and mocking an assistant principal on myspace.com.

The judges received 2.8 million dollars in kickbacks from the private jails.

Last year Ciavarella and Conahan plead guilty to a sweetheart deal that would have given them 87 month sentences but the pleas were rejected as being too soft by United States District Court Judge Edward M. Kosik and the pleas were withdrawn.

Conahan plead guilty last week to one count of a racketeering corruption charge. There is no plea agreement and Judge Kosik could sentence him up to the maximum of twenty years. Ciavarella also withdrew his plea after Judge Kosik refused the 87 month deal and he is facing trial.

When we last visited the story of Mark Ciavarella Jr. and Michael Conahan, about a month ago, the former Luzerne County Pennsylvania juvenile court judges had allegedly received kickbacks from a private jail in exchange for sending kids to the facility. In the process they denied the kids the right to an attorney and ran roughshod over the kids constitutional rights. Senior U.S. District Judge Edward M. Kosik rejected a sweetheart deal they made with prosecutors to spend a significantly below guideline sentence of 87 months in prison.

Wednesday, the Grand Jury indicted them in a 77 page indictment covering 48 counts of racketeering, extortion, bribery, money laundering, fraud and other crimes. The indictment was made public yesterday.

The indictment also seeks the return of 2.8 million dollars wrongfully obtain by Ciavarella and Conahan.

The arraignment on the indictment will be Tuesday.

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.