Article Author:
Associated Press
Michael Rubinkham
Two Pennsylvania judges orchestrated a scheme to send children to for-profit prisons in exchange for kickbacks, thus killing hundreds of children. We were ordered to pay more than $200 million. Children who are victims of crime.
U.S. District Judge Christopher Conner has awarded nearly 300 plaintiffs $106 million in compensatory damages and punitive damages in a lengthy civil lawsuit against the judge. In damages he awarded $100 million.
In what became known as the Children's Cash Scandal, Mark Ciabarera and another judge, Michael Conahan, decided to close down a county-run juvenile detention center and sell it to a builder. Co-owner of two for-profit lockups, accepting illegal payments of $2.8 million. Shea Barrera, who presided over the juvenile court, promoted Zero Tolerance her policy of ensuring large numbers of children were sent to PA Childcare and its sister facility, Western PA Childcare.
Ciavarella ordered his eight-year-old children to be detained. Many of them were first-time offender children convicted of misdemeanors and other minor crimes. Judges often ordered young people who were found to be in arrears to be handcuffed, handcuffed and removed immediately, without giving them a chance to say goodbye to their families.
"Ciavarella and Conahan renounced their oaths and betrayed the public trust," Conner wrote on Tuesday in a statement of damages. "Their cruel and despicable behavior preyed on a vulnerable group of young people suffering from emotional and mental health problems."
has overturned the convictions of about 4,000 juveniles after appearing in
Ciavarella said he is serving a 28-year prison sentence. Sentenced to over 17 years in prison, Conahan was released on house arrest in 2020 due to the coronavirus pandemic. He has six years left on his sentence.
