What really really bugs me about this case is <i>how little money he got</i>. I mean, come on. Judges earn a pretty good living, this guy sold his soul and thousands of real people for a bit over a million. Incredible. I can see how some people might be tempted to do something as bad as this for 100's of millions (they obviously still should not do it, it is just as bad in every other way). But a mere million dollars for the lives of thousands of people? That makes a human life worth < $1000 per head to this judge.<p>I have similar feelings about how cheap politicians are to bribe.
There must be monentary incentives somewhere else too, otherwise the US wouldn't lead the world on the list of imprisoned population: <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_incarceration_rate#United_States" rel="nofollow">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_incarcerat...</a> (juveniles not in the list)
The New York Times has more detailed coverage of this case:<p><a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/28/us/28judges.html?_r=1" rel="nofollow">http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/28/us/28judges.html?_r=1</a><p><a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2013/03/31/books/review/kids-for-cash-and-the-injustice-system.html" rel="nofollow">http://www.nytimes.com/2013/03/31/books/review/kids-for-cash...</a>
I am disgusted at how little time he got.<p>He knows the full extent of what he is doing, as he is a judge. As a person who has seen what prison can do to a person, I feel this is unjust.
I remember this guy. I'll never forget this short video that came out during the case. It does a really good job of portraying just how despicable this man's actions were.<p><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H8JRMGP2hg8" rel="nofollow">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H8JRMGP2hg8</a>
I'm from the area that was under Ciavarella. I remember being in middle school and having him say in an assembly "If you get in a fight, you're coming to me and you're going away. Miss too much school, you're coming to see me and you're going away."
I am always astonished (not in the positive meaning) by the length of theses sentences. The maximum sentence in Germany is 15 years (except for a life long sentence for murder, which could be longer).<p>(disclaimer: I am a volunteer/part time judge)<p>Edit:<p>I'd like to add that I will not comment in public whether I think the sentence is appropriate or not, as I don't ever want anybody in a trial to accuse me of a biased opinion, although I highly doubt that anyone of "my" indicted people will ever read HN.
Original article from Reuter's in Aug 11, 2011.<a href="http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/08/11/us-crime-kidsforcash-idUSTRE77A6KG20110811" rel="nofollow">http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/08/11/us-crime-kidsforca...</a>
The real scandal here is the privatization of the prison system. Had the prison not been a for-profit corporation this kind of thing would not have happened.<p>This story shows that some things should not be privatized. Some people (Rand Paul) believe the Iraq war would not have happened had the US government not relied on for-profit corporations (Halliburton) for war-related contracts. See: <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/post-politics/wp/2014/04/07/rand-paul-in-09-cheney-pushed-iraq-war-to-benefit-halliburton/" rel="nofollow">http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/post-politics/wp/2014/04...</a>
What kind of a website is this? A couple of lines for an article, no sources and some shitty "how to get benefits" ads on the sidebar? Come on now.
If you think the current state of affairs in America isn't a problem you simply need to look to the above article. Disgraceful, hopefully he dies in prison.
Welcome to the world of privatisation. When you privatize institutions which should be run by the government in the first place (health care, public transport, prisons, etc..) then you obviously open up the door for all sorts of corruption since now suddenly all these systems need to make profit.
Is there an aggregate source for sentencing data per state? I understand sentencing varies per judge and in accordance with state laws, but you would think this data exists at the state level and abnormalities (like this judges history?) might bubble up.
I'm shocked but also feel like I've seen something like this happening before, or at least some source speculating on it's possibility. Is there a precedent for this kind of corruption in the U.S? Elsewhere?
This is a decent sentence. I hope it sticks. I suspect there is more of this kind of the thing in the courts. The entire police, prison, and court systems needs to be disinfected. Reorganize the whole thing.
I can only suggest you to watch the PrisonValley documentary (2009) about the prison industry.<p><a href="http://prisonvalley.arte.tv/?lang=en" rel="nofollow">http://prisonvalley.arte.tv/?lang=en</a>
What's disgusting is that he gets 28 years and not life, or better, death prbalty. If there was ever a justified reason (ie Israel executing Eichman) this is it.
That article is hardly informative. What did he do wrong? Sentence juveniles solely to a single contracted prison? So were his decisions actually compromised? Or was it just the kickbacks that are at issue.<p>There's a sad state of affairs on the internet, where a couple of paragraphs of slanted commentary are called an 'article'.