Friday, August 19, 2022

Kids For Cash: Inside the Pennsylvania juvenile justice scandal

Yesterday I posted on the latest developments in the scandal in Pennsylvania over judges locking up juvenile offenders in return for payment from the operators of detention facilities.

This video tells you more about that scandal. There are interviews with two of the (now adult) victims of the scandal and the mother of one who took his own life.

Then from 44:50 we hear from a lawyer who helped bring the corrupt judges to justice and from the director of a film on the scandal.

A final word from Ethics and Psychology:

The psychologist brother-in-law of disgraced former Luzerne County judge Michael T. Conahan has given up his license for “gross incompetence, negligence or misconduct” carrying out his past work evaluating juveniles in the county court system, state officials said Wednesday.

The Pennsylvania Board of Psychology said Frank James Vita, of Dorrance Township, “grossly deviated from ethical and professional standards” after reviewing 76 of the cases he had handled.

Vita once was linked to the county’s “Kids for Cash” judicial scandal in a civil suit that alleged he conspired with Conahan and fellow former judge Mark Ciavarella to perform evaluations that led to juveniles being incarcerated in facilities in which the judges had a financial interest.

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