Judges, Mark A. Ciavarella & Michael T. Conahan Guilty in Scheme to Jail Youths for Profit

06-09-2011 • Thomas Costanzo & Bob Podolsky

By Thomas Costanzo and Bob Podolsky

With well over 2 million people in jail – the U.S. has the world’s biggest prison population. The US has 5% of the worlds population and 25% of the worlds prison population. Now Children are the latest victims of the Prison Industrial complex who are having their lives destroyed because of CRIMINALS acting as judges.

Criminals acting as Judges, Mark A. Ciavarella Jr., and Judge Michael T. Conahan, appeared in federal court in Scranton, Pa., to plead guilty to wire fraud and income tax fraud for taking more than $2.6 million in kickbacks to send teenagers to two privately run youth detention centers run by PA Child Care and a sister company, Western PA Child Care. While prosecutors say that Judge Conahan, 56, secured contracts for the two centers to house juvenile offenders, Judge Ciavarella, 58, was the one who carried out the sentencing to keep the centers filled. “In my entire career, I’ve never heard of anything remotely approaching this,” said