Judges caught on tape discussing $$$ recieved to send kids to juvenile detention!

Nice find. This is just a small example of a much larger problem which exists in the adult penal system. Take a look at Geo Group, formally called Wackenhut. This is a private company which is involved in building prisons to generate revenue from those sent because of indictable drug related charges such as a single marijuana cigarette.

They make money by filling the prisons and now go as far to trade on the NYSX. They have recently been investigated for redirecting money meant for rehabilitation but spending it on prisons instead. Prisons are big business and these guys make a buck for putting you there.

Geo Group

Corrections Corporation of America, the GEO Group and Cornell Companies are the three main private prison businesses.

Our prison-industrial complex also includes members of the American Correctional Association who provide products and servies including lobbying efforts.

One consideration worth looking at more deeply is the fact that whereas adult incarceration is paid for by the federal and state government, in some states, juvenile incarcerations require local county governments to pay half the fees. There would be more hands touching money in this supply chain for juveniles. The theory is, as I understand it, that if counties have to pay fees for juveniles to be incarcerated they will have a better plan for prevention. The result might create a steady stream of corruption opportunities...cheap labor...and apparently based on the op...kick backs.

The numbers would suggest we are incarceration "happy" as a country.

American prisons and jails held 2,304,115 inmates in 2008.[7] Approximately one in every 18 men in the United States is behind bars or being monitored. A significantly greater percentage of the American population is in some form of correctional control even though crime rates have declined by about 25 percent from 1988-2008.[12] 70% of prisoners in the United States are non-whites.[13] In recent decades the U.S. has experienced a surge in its prison population, quadrupling since 1980, partially as a result of mandated sentences that came about during the "war on drugs." Violent crime and property crime have declined since the early 1990s.[14]

Incarceration in The U.S.

What a tangled web we weave....

When I was in high school me and some friends were out camping and messing around in the woods during summer break one year. We came upon a field of marijuana. A very large field, several acres. Parked amongst the rows were a couple of county deputy sheriff and city police cars. We were still in the woods and decided to observe and see what was going on and maybe try to sneak a ways into the field to try and snag some for ourselves. We were expecting to see them start cutting or have a tractor come and harrow or bush hog the field. To our complete surprise the next vehicle that pulled up was the sherrif's car. He got out and the officers wandered around the field inspecting it. After about an hour of this, they all got back in their cars and left. Time went by and me n various friends and sometimes my brothers would go out to the area and take "samples"
Eventually one of my brothers got into some trouble with the local leo's and made the mistake of mentioning the "drug problem". They shipped him off to juvy in 2 seconds flat. Then the real problems began. Constant harassment from the leo's. It got so bad that @ one point with the exception of myself my whole family was locked up. Father,mother and 3 brothers. All for nothing except knowing something they shouldn't have. Eventually a "representative" of the city met with the family attorney and made it clear that unless we left the town/county that there would be a house burning real soon. Everyone was released from police custody and we packed and moved to another town. The feds/dea eventually got off their thumbs and investigated and wound up busting nearly the whole law enforcement structure of this town.
Legal system... Heh!

its stuff like this that makes me want to move to a small island in the middle of nowhere the entire system is croupted and needs to be redone

The scumbag judges would sentence kids to the ' youth ' prison for things that usually ended with probation or counseling. Hundreds of kids were sent to jail specifically for monetary gain. It is an outrage, and think of the kids that were abused at those places...it always happens..and suffered because some lawyers and judges and corporate devils wanted more filthy lucre.

It is a moral outrage as well as deserving a life sentence: After all, there are people doing life for only importation of marijuana and they damn well caused far less grief than one case of this horrid example of judicial crime.

Too bad we live in an age where citizen outrage cannot result in justice of the mnost effective kind...if we did these people in this mess would be dancing on the business end of a hemp rope.

This isn't half of what is going on in Luzurne County, which is where I live. I have been meaning to make a post about this, but the FBI has been raiding every school district, sheriffs office, county commissioners, the paper said it could go down as one of the largest corruption scandals of all time.

Originally posted by MysterE
reply to post by ikonspyre

 

You may get your wish. What does a corrupt judge + jail = ???
A good whooping probably!

-E-

I see what you're getting at here, and I think it would be much more fun than that. I'm sure that there would be lots of wonderful anal rape. If this judge gets put away they might as well rename him kleenex.

Unfortunately, I'm sure that there will be no prison time, at least not in real prison. The system is screwed, and those that have subverted it have enough influence to prevent their own punishment.

And this is why I'm cheering on an ELE. YAY ASTEROID!

reply to post by azrael36


That's intense!! Getting out of that town may not have been a bad thing

-E-

reply to post by Sunsetspawn


That's what I was thinking, but wasn't sure if I should post it, so thanks for that! Is that u with silent Bob? My favorite quote from Mallrats

"Adventure, excitement, the Jedi crave not these things"

-E-

I'm not surprisd.. pretty much what's going here in Vancouver WA, and all of Oregon prisons/Jails..

Fed's would have a heyday here !!!

Will the public have to foot the bill for all the lawsuits that are bound to stem from this?
Can't we seize the assets of all those who profited from these crimes ?
How do these ill-gotten gains differ from all those drug related seizures of cash, cars, boats, and homes?
I have a sinking feeling that those criminals may serve some time and have to part with some cash, but still profit greatly.
A little jail time is a small price to pay so that the grandkids can enjoy that beachfront home.

I'm not surprised. Corruption is way too common. What amazes me is how many people are unaware of how big corruption really is.

Here in Brazil, it is estimated that corruption costs us US $ 25 billion a year. In US, I bet it is WAY more than that.

reply to post by DancedWithWolves

The damn problem is our government decided to let private enterprise control the jails. That is why drug users are jailed and why these judges can get bought off. There are many things that I think the government shouldn't be controlling. This isn't one of them.

The government created the demand for prisons in the first place. We need to look at our laws and unintended consequences first and foremost before we even get to blaming private companies that lie on the effect side of the cause and effect relationship seen here. On top of that, these companies are hardly 'private'. They depend on government money, legislation (kickbacks and back room deals), governments enforcement, and 'contracts' (which are anything but competitive) in order to stay in 'business'.

Also, maybe we wouldn't have the need for corporatist 'private' prisons if we could manage to stop creating crime, criminals, and gave a damn about our fellow man. 24% of the worlds prison population is in the USA (land of the free?). Last I checked, we did not make up nearly 24% of the worlds total population.

Our prison system, like our schools, emergency management systems, and central economic planning systems are FAILING, and in a big way. They only mask the chaos presently occurring.

The underlying cause of all of our nations woes are directly the result of the government. The existence of the government itself quite literally assumes corruption as all people in the government are just as fallible as the rest of us.

It is easy to assume humanity has a certain knack for corruption. The problem is, we then give a select group of humans the guns and legitimate use of them and assume the opposite of these people to which we give extraordinary power. Why assume that the people most driven to lead us are altruistic? It is more likely they wish to control us, hence the reason we are all here on ATS.

None of it is logical, and there is no wonder it never works out well in the end.

Originally posted by PsykoOps
Big revalation. The whole prison system is just another money making scheme.

You have no idea.

I discovered that most judges receive money for DWI's.



It's very deep... so deep that I don't think ATS understands how the system really works.

The system works much like a church does. There are the nine Popes of SCOTUS, and the arch bishops of the federal courts, then there are the bishops of the Circuit Court of Appeals, and then the Monsignors who are your judges, and finally the priest class lawyer set who worship at the alter of injustice and corrupt power. There is a reason the priest class lawyers have created a club of which they call the BAR. Which stands for British Accreditation Registry. Gained our independence? Maybe, if you know how to speak the mystical incantations uttered by this priest class.

Where the Miranda Act guarantees one that an attorney will be provided for you if you can't afford one yourself, The Constitution has something entirely different to say about the matter:

In all criminal prosecutions, the accused shall enjoy the right to a speedy and public trial, by an impartial jury of the State and district where in the crime shall have been committed, which district shall have been previously ascertained by law, and to be informed of the nature and cause of the accusation; to be confronted with the witnesses against him; to have compulsory process for obtaining witnesses in his favor, and to have the Assistance of Counsel for his defence

~6th Amendment~

Assistance of Counsel does not mean that one must sign over power of attorney in order to gain this assistance of counsel, but do you think an attorney will you tell you this? A common slogan within the priest class lawyer set is:

"A man who represents himself in court has a fool for a lawyer."

Which is nothing more than empty rhetoric and given that every person has the right to face their accuser's, it would make sense they have the right to defend themselves, and represent themselves. Why does no one find it odd, that an attorney sitting right next to the defendant will rise and answer, when questioned by the judge, "who represents the defendant?", and the lawyer answers, "I do, your honor." Why, if the defendant is sitting right there, does he need any representation at all? Representation is a far cry from Assistance of Counsel, and frankly, it would be prudent to obtain Competent Assistance of Counsel, and not buy into all the priest class lawyer crap.

A man who has a fool for a lawyer is a bigger fool himself!

Now, everybody please rise and listen to the mystical incantations of a bailiff as a solemn Monsignor enters the church in his sacred robe. Now every body sit, now stand, now kneel, now sit....

[edit on 14-5-2010 by Jean Paul Zodeaux]

Outrageous. And, yet, they will find their scapegoats and out them while the practice continues widespread, the root cause i.e. the privatization of the penal system in the states, will remain unaffected. Just look at the success (read: epic failure) of the audit the fed bill for a clue as to a best result out of a corrupt governance.

This issue was highlighted in Michael Moore's Capitalism: A Love Story - I know he's not the best liked person but if you haven't seen it I'd recommend it, to my knowledge he only works with fact and interviews some kids who had been locked up for as little as swearing, and some instead of being fostered.

Politics is today more than ever, in any country, about who can afford to buy the lawmakers to pass bills which will help private businesses make more money.

Originally posted by gandhi
Is this how baby boomers treat our children?

Is this how authority treats the governed?

Is this how Law treats Civilians?

This is how people treat people.

there are some boomers who treat the children good, some that treat them not so good.....
the are some in positions of authority who sincerely try to serve the people they govern, others who use that authority to only serve themselves and their friends...
and those laws can be bent any which way the authories disire.
as for the people??
they are all angels, some are good, some are bad.....and well, on the outside, they all look basically the same....
so, well, how do you tell the difference between the good and the bad??

it's an age old problem, not restricted to just one generation!

These two county judges are actually from my town and I always knew they were trouble. Stay tuned because from what I hear from some very big names in this town there will be two more being investigated. Not naming names but all I have to say is one is very big that deals with the state of pa and the other represents the town.

Originally posted by MysterE

That is just wrong. What is up with all of the corruption in our legal system. I wonder how many kids were sent to this juvi school that really didn't deserve it. Lawyer up kids, because I see a settlement in your future!
""
Many kids and parents have already lawyered up in this town where i am from and have already gotten settlements ranging from cash to exponging of their record.
Also, my brother was one of those kids that didn't deserve it. He was actually innocent but Ciaverella didn't want to hear it and threw the book at him.

Originally posted by CaptGizmo
Gee and they wonder why the general public don't trust them...SIGH!!!! lets see...we can't trust our Politicians,judges,cops,military,teachers,news,Hollywood,textbooks,NASA,
Wall street,Banks,Drug companies,insurance Co,auto industry!,etc.,etc.,etc.

Does this just put the top on the cake for anyone. We are turning out to be one of the most corrupt countries in the world and it is making me physically ill now.

I agree wholeheartedly with some of your statements, and know full well the corruption of the local P.D.'s as well as Judicial powers, and subverts at the street level.

Not too long ago, I had a little bit of a physical fight in the 'bad district'. Many months later, I get a chump charge, and hear full well in court as I'm sentenced the nitty gritty details of my fight I was involved in.

Now, it seems, I'm squared of with the lackeys of the legal system who wish to get out of trouble or get some favoritism, as a bunch of punk cops don't like me.

And, yes I've had a round or two with them in a cordoned off area.

It's getting crazie these days, and quite injurous.