Former PA Judges To Pay $200M In Kids-For-Cash Scandal: Reports

PENNSYLVANIA — Two former Pennsylvania judges have been ordered to pay more than $200 million to victims after the pair was found guilty more than a decade ago of sending hundreds of kids to for-profit jails in exchange for financial kickbacks, according to an Associated Press report.

U.S. District Court Judge Christopher Conner awarded $106 million in compensatory damages and $100 million in punitive damages to nearly 300 people in a civil suit against former Luzerne County juvenile court judges Mark Ciavarella and Michael Conahan.

“Ciavarella and Conahan abandoned their oath and breached the public trust,” Conner wrote in his explanation of the judgment. “Their cruel and despicable actions victimized a vulnerable population of young people, many of whom were suffering from emotional issues and mental health concerns.”

In 2009, Ciavarella and Conahan pleaded guilty to tax evasion and honest services fraud, according to an ABC News report. A federal judge later rejected their plea deal and a grand jury indicted them on four dozen different charges, including racketeering, bribery and extortion.

In 2011, Ciavarella was sentenced to 28 years in prison. Conahan pleaded guilty to a single racketeering charge last year and was sentenced to 17 years for his role in the scheme; however, he was released to home confinement in 2020 due to the coronavirus pandemic.

According to The AP, the pair shut down a county-run juvenile detention center and proceeded to accept more than $2.8 million in illegal payments in exchange for sending kids to the for-profit PA Child Care and its sister facility, Western PA Child Care.

In exchange for kickbacks, Ciavarella sent children as young as 8 to private facilities in handcuffs, according to The AP. Many were first-time offenders charged with crimes like petty theft, jaywalking and truancy.

In all, Ciavarella sent about 4,000 children to the facilities between 2003 and 2008, according to Prison Legal News.

In 2009, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court ruled to dismiss nearly all 4,000 convictions handed down by Ciavarella, according to ABC News.

Despite the judgment, it's unlikely the victims will see any payment, The AP reported. Still, advocates are calling it a "huge victory."

“To have an order from a federal court that recognizes the gravity of what the judges did to these children in the midst of some of the most critical years of their childhood and development matters enormously, whether or not the money gets paid," said Marsha Levick, co-founder and chief counsel of the Philadelphia-based Juvenile Law Center and a lawyer for the plaintiffs.