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Two former judges ordered to pay $206 million in damages for "kids-for-cash" scam
Two former Pennsylvania judges were ordered to pay $206 million in damages for a “kids-for-cash” scandal involving a for-profit prison and a scheme that victimized hundreds of children.
In one of the worst judicial scandals in US history, Judges Mark Ciavarella and Michael Conahan shut down a juvenile detention facility run by the county in favor of two for-profit juvenile facilities. The builder and co-founder of the centers then gave $2.8 million in cash kickbacks to both judges for every child they sent to his detention facility, leading to the “kids-for-cash” moniker.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Evil and horrifying. They both need to take their last breaths in prison.<a href="https://t.co/MqMzONvaJU">https://t.co/MqMzONvaJU</a></p>— Rep. Gloria Johnson (@VoteGloriaJ) <a href="https://twitter.com/VoteGloriaJ/status/1560442895366250496?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">August 19, 2022</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
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Over 300 plaintiffs were awarded a total of $106 million in compensatory damages and $100 million in punitive damages by District Judge Christopher Conner who described the victims as “tragic human casualties of a scandal of epic proportions.”
Ciavarella, adopted a “zero-tolerance” policy which sent a high volume of juvenile violators to PA Child Care and Western PA Child Care. He routinely sentenced children as young as eight years old to be incarcerated for first time offenses such as “petty theft, jaywalking, truancy, smoking on school grounds and other minor infractions.”
