Cash for Kids Judges finally convicted

We get horror stories all the time. Those of us with a passing interest in US Justice shudder whenever we hear the name Mike Nifong, the man who single-handedly tried to put three men inside on rape charges he knew full well weren’t true to ensure he kept his job as a District Attorney as he was up for re-election. Yes a man tried with all his might to ruin people’s lives for his own career. He is an evil man and the fact that he only ever spent one day in jail is nothing short of disgusting.

Anyway on to the latest story that has just left me sitting here shaking my head is belief. Two judges in Pennsylvania were sending kids to a private prison and receiving kickbacks for every kid they sent to the detention facility. So basically for every kid they sent down they got a big fat reward cheque for their actions. Mark Ciavarella and Michael Conahan were the two men behind the scandal known as the Cash For Kids Scandal and the trial is finally over nearly two and a half years after prosecutors first rumbled their scheme.

Between them they are believed to have pocketed the best part of $3million over the years for doing this. The sad thing is because of how the case was conducted prosecutors weren’t able to convince the jury that they had on purpose judged too harshly and therefore Ciavarella got off on 27 of his 39 counts meaning that he could be out in 13 years instead of the minimum 157 that he was facing. Conahan has pleaded guilty to racketeering conspiracy and is expected to be sentenced shortly along with Ciavarella. Conahan is expected to face twenty years whilst Ciavarella is expected to receive slightly less.

Here is a video recounting some of the trials and tribulations that these judges have put people through for no good reason. Kids have killed themselves because of what these judges were doing.

If we can’t believe that judges will sentence criminals fairly then there is something extremely wrong with the system, certainly when it comes to children. I will blog on my thoughts about raising the age of criminal responsibility to 14 another day, which the Lib Dems are proposing but even teenagers sometimes do not need to see the inside of a prison cell to be scared straight. Many teenage crimes are done for attention and lashing out. Criminalising them will only reenforce what they already think, that society doesn’t give a damn or has already given up on them. That is a blog for another day.

Today this blog is about people in high authority ruining lives just for a few dollar bills. People look at the USA and believe that it is the greatest democracy on Earth. Well I’m sorry folks but that’s horse shit. The United States of America is the land of the free but only if you grease the wheels. It is as corrupt as many other places but no-one ever wants to believe it. I’m just thankful that I don’t live there.

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