Corrupt judges locked up thousands of minors after being bribed by contractors and owners of private prisons to incarcerate children
money
Democracy Now
See for example the story of Jamie Quinn. When I was 14 years old, was imprisoned for nearly a year. Jamie, now 18, described the incident that caused his imprisonment:
"I was arguing with one of my friends. And all that happened was a simple fight. She slapped me and I sent it back. There were no marks, no witnesses, nothing. It was only his word against mine. "
Jamie was taken to one of two controversial prisons, PA Child Care and then walked through other prisons. Being in prison for 11 months had a devastating impact on her. He said: "People looked at me differently when I left, they thought it was a bad person because she had been imprisoned for so long. My family started to break up ... because it was outside the house and locked me up, and was, I thought, you know, I was being punished for what he had done, and I should not have been. Even I have trouble in school because the school system in this type of detention is scary. "
Began to make cuts, and said it was a result of medication he was forced to take: "I was never depressed, never before had given me medication. I went there and started giving me medication and did not even know what it was. They said that if not take it, I was not following my program. " She was hospitalized three times.
Jamie Quinn is just one of thousands of children who were imprisoned by the two corrupt judges. The Juvenile Law Center (Juvenile Law Center) based in Philadelphia, was involved in the case when Hillary Transue was sent to prison for three months to create a web site that parodied the deputy director of the school. Hillary clearly stated that the page was a joke. Apparently, the deputy found not fun and Hillary had to face the Judge Ciavarella, known for its severity.
As I said Bob Schwartz of the Juvenile Law Center: "Hillary, unknowingly, had signed a document, and his mother had signed a document waiving his right to counsel. This caused the 90-second hearing before the judge took Ciavarella was a farce. " The Juvenile Law Center (JLC, for its acronym in English), found that half of the cases of children in Luzerne County, the defendants had waived their right to a lawyer. Judge Ciavarella ignored on several occasions, the recommendations for leniency from both the prosecutors and probation officers. The Pennsylvania Supreme Court heard the case of JLC and the FBI began an investigation, which ended last week with the signing of two judges, agreement to plead guilty to tax evasion and mail fraud.
is expected to serve a sentence of seven years in federal prison. There were two separate lawsuits on behalf of imprisoned children.
The scandal involves only a U.S. county jail and a relatively small private. According to The Sentencing Project, "America is the world leader in incarceration, there are currently 2.1 million people in prisons or jails in the country, representing an increase of 500% in the last thirty years." The Wall Street Journal reports that "companies that manage private prisons are preparing for a wave of new businesses, since the economic recession makes it increasingly difficult to government officials, both federal and state level, build and manage their own prisons. " Management companies for profit prisons and Corrections Corporation of America and GEO Group (formerly Wackenhut) are positioned for more gains. It remains unclear what impact the stimulus bill that just passed in the private prison industry (eg, the law provides $ 800 million to build prisons, but cut millions of dollars for school construction .)
Congress still is considering bills to improve the policies of juvenile justice. The proposed legislation, according to the American Union for Civil Liberties, is "built on evidence clear that the programs can be much more successful in preventing juvenile delinquency the discredited policies of incarceration and excessive. "
Our children need education and opportunity, not incarceration. Let the children of Luzerne County, who were imprisoned by corrupt judges to make money, give us a lesson. As a young Jamie Quinn said about [the corrupt judge and] the 11 months he spent in prison, "It makes me really question other figures of power and the people who supposedly should admire and whom we should trust."
Denis Moynihan contributed to this column journalistic production.
Amy Goodman is the host of "Democracy Now!" A daily international one-hour show that airs on over 550 radio and television stations in 200 English and English. In 2008 he was awarded the Right Livelihood Award, also known as the "Alternative Nobel Prize", awarded in the Swedish Parliament in December.
© 2009 Amy Goodman
