In Philidelphia, the city of brotherly love, two judges pleaded guilty to accepting money to give juveniles longer sentences in a youth detention center. Together they both raked in over $2.6 million. Judge Mark Ciavarella has made a formal apology but the other judge has failed to do so.
How the scam worked was: A detention center would receive money from the county government for each kid who made a stay at the juvenile inn. The longer the stay the more money the detention center got. The Judges would then accept payoffs from the detention center to give harsher sentences than were required for misdemeanors. Between 2003- and 2006, 20% to 40% of juveniles that were tried by the two judges, received long sentences for minor offenses such as "being in the company of someone who shoplifted", and small "schoolyard" fights.
The judges tried to hide the extra income but did not succeed. They have been removed from duty by the Pennsylvania Supreme Court. See the article here.
This is another example of the abuse of judicial power. I think it's only right to be aware of such bad examples of judgement amongst those who judge us. How heartless and uncaring can a trusted official be? Who's to say that is not happening all over the place in both juvenile and adult detention centers? Prisons are a big business in America.
http://money.cnn.com/magazines/business2/business2_archive/2006/12/01/8394995/index.htm
http://www.politicalaffairs.net/article/view/2024/1/124/
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