Friday, August 12, 2011

Judge sentenced to 28 years for jailing youths for kickbacks


Former Luzerne County (Pennsylvania) Judge Mark Ciavarella has been spending his time doing odd jobs for a car towing service while he awaited sentencing since being found guilty on felony corruption charges.  Well his painting days are over and 61 year old judge is heading to federal prison for 28 years…a life sentence.

His sentencing brings to closure a dark time in the history of the city of Wilkes-Barre, PA, which is in Luzerne County.  He was found guilty back in February of racketeering for taking a $1 million kickback from the builder of for-profit prisons for juveniles.  Ciavarella who left the bench over two years ago after he and another judge, Michael Conahan, were accused of sentencing youngsters to prisons they had a hand in building.  Prosecutors alleged that Conahan, who pleaded guilty last year and is awaiting sentencing, and Ciavarella received kick-backs from the private company that built and maintained the new youth detention facility that replaced the older county-run center.[...]

1 comment :

  1. He deserves it. After being incarcerated under very harsh conditions, some of the kids went into drug abuse, and even committed suicide. This was a horrible, horrible case.

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