SG Talk

By MICHAEL RUBINKAM
today


Two former Pennsylvania judges who orchestrated a scheme to send children to for-profit jails in exchange for kickbacks were ordered to pay more than US$200 million to hundreds of people they victimized in one of the worst judicial scandals in U.S. history.

U.S. District Judge Christopher Conner awarded US$106 million in compensatory damages and US$100 million in punitive damages to nearly 300 people in a long-running civil suit against the judges, writing the plaintiffs are “the tragic human casualties of a scandal of epic proportions.”

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Mark Ciavarella and another judge, Michael Conahan, shut down a county-run juvenile detention center and accepted US$2.8 million in illegal payments from the builder and co-owner of two for-profit lockups. Ciavarella, who presided over juvenile court, pushed a zero-tolerance policy that guaranteed large numbers of kids would be sent to PA Child Care and its sister facility, Western PA Child Care.

Ciavarella ordered children as young as 8 to detention

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The Pennsylvania Supreme Court threw out some 4,000 juvenile convictions involving more than 2,300 kids after the scheme was uncovered.

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Several of the childhood victims who were part of the lawsuit when it began in 2009 have since died from overdoses or suicide



Many more details of this scandal in the long report at: https://apnews.com/article/crime-trendin...47b1be50f0

What's the point of having judgement of crazy quantum but knowing that unlikely for victims to get paid... It's like govt can set aside 20bil for whatever social or welfare during budget but the fine print could be a huge list of criteria that hardly anyone is eligible... Then next year declare as budget surplus...

(18-08-2022, 09:56 AM)Sticw Wrote: [ -> ]What's the point of having judgement of crazy quantum but knowing that unlikely for victims to get paid... It's like govt can set aside 20bil for whatever social or welfare during budget but the fine print could be a huge list of criteria that hardly anyone is eligible... Then next year declare as budget surplus...

I guess the jury system will tend towards awarding huge amounts. Because the jurists will think "what if it happened to me?". It could also be an act of vengeance against what they see as powerful figures or corporations etc. They also tend to be more emotional that the professional judges.

You seldom see such huge amounts in a non-jury judicial system.

(18-08-2022, 11:27 AM)Levin Wrote: [ -> ]I guess the jury system will tend towards awarding huge amounts. Because the jurists will think "what if it happened to me?". It could also an act of vengeance against what they see as powerful figures or corporations etc. They also tend to be more emotional that the professional judges.

You seldom see such huge amounts in a non-jury judicial system.

Here's an article on why juries award huge amounts: https://riskandinsurance.com/5-reasons-w...-verdicts/

even judges are crooked
who else can we trust

(18-08-2022, 04:57 PM)singaporean1964 Wrote: [ -> ]even judges are crooked
who else can we trust

Judges are elected in Pennsylvania. I think as long as they are charismatic enough or at least appear better than their competition, they will be elected and become judges there. They are not appointed so they are no true vetting process, I think. The people will just have to try to find out by themselves or trust what they say during the election period.

And the election process is a rather political affair as the judges actually state their political party when they run for office, so the judicial system is also political.


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Judicial_e...nnsylvania