Subscribe to Breaking NewsRuby-Sachs: Judges Paid to Put Kids in Jail
I know this isn’t an LGBT related story or even a national news piece, but the article in the New York Times this morning about the Pennsylvania justice system was so outraging, I had to write about it.
Two judges, one president judge in control of budget and one overseeing the juvenile courts, were paid over 2.6 million dollars to keep two privately run juvenile detention centers filled. For some, this meant spending three months in jail for minor offences like creating a My Space page making fun of an assistant principal.
The story raises so many issues. First, incarcerating children for profit leads to incentives for retention and punishment, rather than alternative placement and rehabilitation. This company made money off of kids who were sentenced harshly and who re-offended or faced longer terms in custody. At the same time, society benefits when children are taught to behave better, are encouraged not to re-offend and are separated from their families for as little time as possible.
When we turn the justice system over to individuals who are looking to make a buck, should we be surprised when coruption ensues?
As well, the children who appeared before the judge in charge of filling the private detention center were often unrepresented. In Pennsylvania, children must be represented by counsel, but this judge had an unusually high number of children “waive” their right to counsel. Because of waining resources and a lack of accountability for judges in the juvenile system, complaints from as early as 2002 about the conviction rate and lack of representation in the judge’s courtroom were ignored.
Court is a complicated and scary place. Publicly funded lawyers are overworked and, sometimes, under-trained. They are most certainly underpaid for the important work they do. If proper resources were available, some of these kids could have appealed their sentences and more opportunities for high court review of the decisions of the corrupt judges would have been created.
This story is a wake-up call for the American justice system. It’s time to take private corporations out of the job of housing criminals. It’s also time to re-insert the government into the job of defending and consulting on criminal cases. Only with these changes can justice be actually served.
Trace, I work in a government facility, and I can tell you for solid fact that our internal standards of documentation–for any event or issue–are FAR more stringent than would be seen in a non-government facility. What makes privatization so dangerous is that public money is directed to a private operation. Most government entities aren’t especially cautious in demanding the same accountability from a contractor they would demand from their own operation, with the result that it’s far easier to abuse the system.
Gay kids are more likely to be at-risk–somehow the law doesn’t seem to take umbrage when a gay teenager is thrown out on the curb–and, like poor and nonwhite kids, this means there’s a greater chance of being placed in an institutional setting of some sort.
You want an example of what danger can follow from privatization? Last month there was a teenage girl with behavioral issues who suffocated from an inappropriate hold. She was at Parmadale, a juvenile center which has a good overall reputation. She had acted out in a minor way, but staff saw fit to place her in a hold face-down on the floor. The local press started the blame game. Parmadale answers to both the Ohio Department of Mental Health and to Mental Retardation and Developmental Disabilities (MRDD). Now, neither ODMH nor MRDD allow this hold in their facilities, and staff using it would be fired. At a contract facility though, local media took the strange tack of holding government agencies to account more than the facility staff. Who smothered the girl–some bureaucrat in Columbus, 125 miles away? No, a Parmadale employee did. But when you contract out, it becomes easier to blame “the government” while holding no-one directly responsible. When there are no direct consequences for misusing your responsibility, then you are more likely to do wrong even if there’s no overt intent.
Censoredagain sure got in a hurry from a couple of corrupt judges to treason against the Constitution, just because Ruby-Sachs said the state should control the courts. Talk about an over-the-top reaction! Canada has a safer system, because Canadian judges are protected by law from any and all outside influences, whether government, individual, or corporate, leaving the judge free to get on with the work. Only a truly independent judiciary can deliver the quality of judgement society needs! And that is NOT the same thing as socialism, as the current government in Canada proves that a conservative government and an independent judiciary can co-exist just fine.
A typical conclusion from a socialist! I will be the first to say the judges actions were criminal. Public servants accepting bribes is illegal so the answer is to police and enforce laws prohibiting public servants from breaching the public’s trust; not to further restrict the once free market.
Ruby-Sachs’ knee jerk reaction is very similar to that of theocrats… outlaw the temptation so know one would commit the sin. This is one step away from policing individual thought. The evil in this case is not the private juvenile detention centers but the offering and accepting of bribes. As long as there is power there will be those wanting to buy favors rather that power is public or private. Ruby-Sachs’ misguide notion of imposing more socialism on the once free Americans is tantamount to treason against the ideas inscribed in our constitution.
HELLO!!! White-collar crimes are always ignored. I would like to see who was being sent to jail…usu. these things happen to the poor and/or minorities. It doesn’t surprise me one bit that these judges were able to get away with kickbacks for years.
The fact that it took years for it to be uncovered makes me think the victims affected had a lack of resources (usu. the poor)because this would never happen to rich kids. Their parents would have the judges thrown in jail in a heartbeat. LOL.
“When we turn the justice system over to individuals who are looking to make a buck, should we be surprised when corruption ensues?”
- Yes, because there is no corruption when it is solely a government entity? Come on Ruby-Sachs, you can not possibly be so naive’.
“Court is a complicated and scary place. Publicly funded lawyers are overworked and, sometimes, under-trained.”
- Sometimes? Try 95% of the time. When I did social work for Children’s Services, I once asked my supervisor why more people did not choose to have a public defender. The answer? Because the public defenders would usually meet the client a half hour before court and were lucky if they could even remember the client’s name.
“First, incarcerating children for profit leads to incentives for retention and punishment, rather than alternative placement and rehabilitation.”
- This is purely an assumption. I’d like to see your statistics to back this up. I can tell you that when I worked for the county, we were told every August & September to prepare invoices and ask for everything we wanted and did not want. The importance was that we used ever bit of our budget and more so that we would receive the same allotment the next fiscal year.
“This story is a wake-up call for the American justice system. It’s time to take private corporations out of the job of housing criminals. It’s also time to re-insert the government into the job of defending and consulting on criminal cases.”
- Because government is so competent? My Goodness! Ruby-Sachs if you don’t already realize that government is the problem and not the solution, I’m not sure ever will.
I agree with Justin.
Oh this is just the Tip of an Elaborate Iceburg. These Judges along with Prosecutors in Luzern County are all in bed together. This is in the same county where the Gay Porn Producer was Murdered in 07. The Court System and Luzern County Commissioneers are all dirty. YOU HAVE NO IDEA! I call them ” Dewy Cheatham and Howe”. These Crooks were laundering Money and continue to do so. Funneling there proceeds into Front Corporations in Pa and Fla, with Limos, Yachts, and all expense paid vacations in Condos in Fla. Those who cooperated with the Juvinile scheme that is. Not to mention the Auto Ins. scams they were running. I feel sorry for the Children and Familys who were Misrepersentated by these Defense attorneys and Prosecutors who worked in tandem with the Juvinile Judge and they are back peddling Extremely fast. Seems some Juvinile cases were NEVER awarded Representation at all. The Picture of the Judges in the Paper, SEE THEM smileing as they are being lead from arraingment procedings. I think that every One of there Cases need to be reviewed and those that were erronous need to be reembursed from the Judges Personel Coffers not the States or the Countys. This just an Hour from where a 21 yr old Gay Serviceman was stabed by a 19 yr old,in Monroe County Pa.
This serves as a prime example of what happens, cause & effect if you will, when we allow deregualtion & privatization to transfer the power from ‘we the people’ to a handful of Corporate entities whose only reason for existance is to ‘make a profit’.
If ‘we the people’ are the government, then it should be apparent that government deregulation does not mean there is no regualtion, it just transfers the power to regulate from ‘we the people’ to a ‘private entity/person’… think ‘privatization’.
Under the guise that ‘private’ is cheaper, and ‘public’ is bloated & wasteful Big government spending, the whole ‘for profit’ aspect of the ‘private’ ownership remains eerily silent & ignored, as are the HUGE payoff’s to pencil pushing CEO types. Is it any real suprise, then, that we now see another form of PRIVATE trickle down corruption via infiltration of our PUBLIC Judicial system by paying off our PUBLIC Judges.
As always, one has to ask… did the person fail the system, or did the system fail the person ?…. if our entire lives are dictated by Corporations whose only reason for existance is to ‘make a profit’, where not just business, but humans are seen as nothing other than a potential liquidatable asset whenever a little more ‘profit’ is needed, then maybe, just maybe, we need to revisit the reasons we have had government (we the people) regulation in the first place.
Obviously, any person or entity that is obsessed with profit and big salaries, as their first and only priority, could care little as to the consequences to business or humanity. That pretty much explains why we have a business climate where business is all about NOT providing the product and or services that the business exists for in the first place. Why denial of insurance coverage equals huge bonuses to a few, why Banks are failing, yet paying huge bonuses, now called ‘retention’, with the list of ‘why’s’ potentially going on for far more any of us care to read in this forum.
3 months for making a hate myspace? These juvenile court people must be super bored o waist their time on something like that. I bet if this assistant principal turned away a gay student who was getting harassed then they would be able to keep their job or if a student beat up another student for being gay they probably would get a 10 day suspension and not spend 1 second locked up.