Ex-US judge pleads guilty to child prison scam

Ex-US judge pleads guilty to child prison scam

www.bbc.co.uk

Former Pennsylvania judge Michael Conahan has pleaded guilty to a racketeering conspiracy charge for helping put juvenile defendants behind bars in exchange for bribes.

He is accused along with former judge Mark Ciavarella of taking $2.8m (£1.8m) from a profit-making detention centres.

Prosecutors in a federal court in Scranton, Pennsylvania, said Conahan had closed a county-owned juvenile detention centre in 2002, just before signing an agreement to use a for-profit centre.

(visit the link for the full news article)



Related AboveTopSecret.com Discussion Threads:
Child prison secret restraint tactics 'revealed'

YES, one corrupt official stopped in his tracks and another 20 may also be stopped... and, one 'for-profit' child prison may very well be shut down, with a bit of luck.

This comes just days after a report from the UK on privatised UK child prisons and their 'restraint' methods.

It just goes to show that some people will do anything in order to make a profit. Just how corrupt and tisted does money make us?

The two men were originally charged in early 2009 with accepting money from the builder and owner of a for-profit detention centre that housed county juveniles in exchange for giving children longer, harsher sentences.

Some of the children were shackled, denied lawyers, and pulled from their homes for offences which included stealing change from cars and failure to appear as witnesses.

I cannot wait for these kids to be released and start law suits against the system for wrongful imprisonment.

IMO, 'for-profit' prison systems is wrong. Very wrong. It now appears that this particular practise is WIDE open to abuse, as this case shows us.

www.bbc.co.uk
(visit the link for the full news article)

prisons/jails for profit shouldnt even be allowed to exist. thats some bs. the 2 times ive been to jail it was a private owned christian jail that had church 3 times a day.

reply to post by Extralien


Just to make a profit...how naive.


They are locating youngsters, at risk / for sale...
...for various purposes...none of them good.

these type of prisons should not be allowed to exist jails should be financed by government not outsourced because then you get corruption like this i believe every one of these victims should be given a multimillion dollar settlement by government and judge should have to spend a year in jail for each victim and 5 years in jail for each victim raped or murdered in jail because of his trumped up sentences . yes i realize it would be over 1000 years in prison but its the only fair sentence i could give him.

And it was then that they realized that the justice systems around the world had 'sold' the authority to impose 'corporate' justice upon those convicted of crimes.

Each nation debates its 'reform' or 'punish' philosophies, but leaves the execution of policy to an agency in which 'oversight' is an 'external'-expense, rather than part of the business model.

And we expected that those who would actually engage in such a business were motivated by honor, service? Really?

If the people wish to rely on justice as a tool to protect society at large, it is the people who must be the executors, not some 'corporation' which has no morals, no ethics, and faces no repercussion for the deficiency.

Prisoners are not chattel. Except for when 'corporations' become involved.

It makes you wonder just how wide spread this kind of thing is. If they would put kids away for money, might not the system put away anyone?

How many innocent people are in prison and can't get out, because the whole thing was rigged against them just to make some money?

Originally posted by Nicenico
It makes you wonder just how wide spread this kind of thing is. If they would put kids away for money, might not the system put away anyone?

How many innocent people are in prison and can't get out, because the whole thing was rigged against them just to make some money?

Just for kicks sometime check the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children and get the numbers of missing children in your state.

It will blow your mind.

How can that many children just vanish?

Why don't we hear more about them?

They are just children and do not leave much of a mark. The parents are sometimes complicit in their disappearance. It is really a horror that runs unnoticed.

Isn't 'privatization' great!

We need more, corrupting, wasteful, corporate welfare,

to make the US as rotting & corrupt as the worst places on the planet & maybe moreso.

Originally posted by slank
Isn't 'privatization' great!

We need more, corrupting, wasteful, corporate welfare,

to make the US as rotting & corrupt as the worst places on the planet & maybe moreso.

I remember when the criminal Ridge 'privatized" PA's energy system. They said "prices will go down", but forgot to mention only after they increase dramatically and then the prices might go down a little with increased competition.

What a strange world, the Government's want to nationalize everything but the things they are supposed to do.

Originally posted by Nicenico
It makes you wonder just how wide spread this kind of thing is. If they would put kids away for money, might not the system put away anyone?

How many innocent people are in prison and can't get out, because the whole thing was rigged against them just to make some money?

Oh this is just the tip of the iceberg! Every jail and prison is a for profit business! Including the supposed public ones. They are all registered private for profit corporations. Every case in a court room gets a bond written on it and sold on the bond market. Putting people in jail is just warehousing the collateral on the bond.

The whole supposed justice system stinks to the high heavens and needs to be eradicated! It's all a commercial venture. These people make thier living off of the misery and suffering of human kind, it is just sick!



[edit on 26-7-2010 by hawkiye]

I knew the first time I heard years ago that many prisons were becoming for-profit, corporations that something really crazy like this was going to happen.

That it was happening to kids is just that much worse. Destroying young lives for profit, but such a surprisingly large number of people are sociopaths - only a sociopath could do such a thing, IMO. No remorse, no sense of shame or guilt.

The guy should be given consecutive terms for each incidence of this he put these kids through. Make him serve the time each one of these kids was made to serve, consecutively. That would be a truly just punishment.

[edit on 7/26/2010 by LifeInDeath]

This story makes me want to wash my hands. Or puke. Or something.

Think I'll go punch the wall for awhile. Don't mind me.





[edit on 7/26/10 by silent thunder]

It is hard enough to keep government clean.

'Privatization' just attempts to put a 'legitimate' facade on the corruption & graft.

Why do we put up with all this right wing fascist nonsense anyway?

GOP corporate spin & lies, to the ruin of our nation.

Not without a majority of Dems buying into it, too.

GOP: 'support the troops' to hide a treasonous foreign policy, while they house wounded vets with rats, mold & collapsing ceilings so their profiteer buddies can make out like the bandits they are.

They are just treacherous & rotten liars, & no one seems to either recognize it or call them on it.

All prison systems (at least in the U.S.) are essentially for profit corporations whether privately run or not.

They have massive motor pools which creates allot of wealth and kickbacks from whoever gets the car, truck & bus contracts.

The phone contracts are among the biggest money makers in the phone business with multiple banks of phones at each facility charging 2-4 dollars a minute for operator assisted calls. They only allow operator assisted or collect calls because those are allowed to charge the highest fees even though they use computerized operators these days. Prison and phone contractors make millions each year off of these contracts.

While many have tried to farm or ranch using state land & prison labor in order to cut down on food costs, eventually it cost multiple times of what they'd pay to purchase from private food suppliers due to corruption & guard unions, so the food suppliers benefit from every extra mouth to feed.

Prisons are full of union workers who's goals include keeping as many customers as they can, so they create situations and environments that lead to more crimes being committed in order to extend the stay of their customers.

Of course the court systems want repeat customers, so they put as many people in prison as they can in order to have future customers back.

[edit on 26-7-2010 by verylowfrequency]

This place was showcased in Michael Moore's movie 'Capitalism: A Love Story.'

Glad to see the real criminal is being punished.

I don't know why, but this story REALLY got under my skin. I mean, even more that it should have.

Anything involving abuse of children is always harrowing. When it is as systematic and cold-blooded as this, it is beyond harrowing, beyond sickening.

And I know its just the tip of the iceburg.

I would like a few hours alone with this "judge" in a room with no windows. But I will just leave it at that before I incur an extreme violation of ATS terms and conditions.

I hope communities everywhere begin to pry into this kind of thing and work to put a stop to it. If anything good comes of this story, perhaps it will be awareness that this is going on.