Some years back, a judge privatized juvenile corrections for profit: his profit. 12/14/24 WHYY:
A judge who helped orchestrate one of the worst judicial scandals in U.S.history — a scheme to send children to for-profit jails in exchange for kickbacks — was among the 1,500 people whose sentences were commuted by President Joe Biden this week.
Biden’s decision to commute the 17-year prison sentence of Michael Conahan angered many in northeastern Pennsylvania, from the governor to the families whose children were victimized by the disgraced former judge. Conahan had already served the vast majority of his sentence, which was handed down in 2011....In what came to be known as the kids-for-cash scandal, Conahan and Judge Mark Ciavarella shut down a county-run juvenile detention center and accepted $2.8 million in illegal payments from a friend of Conahan’s who built and co-owned two for-profit lockups.
Ciavarella, who presided over juvenile court, pushed a zero-tolerance policy that guaranteed large numbers of children would fill the beds of the private lockups. The scandal prompted the Pennsylvania Supreme Court to throw out some 4,000 juvenile convictions involving more than 2,300 children.
Lose a swing state and the results can be ugly.
From 12/11/24 WGN:
"Crundwell pled guilty to stealing millions dollars from taxpayers in the largest municipal heist in U.S. history. Covid sent her home from prison early; but now Dixon residents have learned she won’t go back.
"Crundwell was a humble public servant by day, but lived large in almost every other part of her life. A 20-year fraud on her hometown of Dixon, Illinois total $54 million.
Now, another gut punch for the people of Dixon. Crundwell’s name is on the list of people granted clemency means her punishment is over."
Why? Professional courtesy?
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