Youth Justice
Thousands of juvenile convictions in Pennsylvania have been chucked out following a “jailing kids for cash” scandal concerning a former Luzerne County judge.
The Pennsylvania Supreme Court yesterday dismissed five years’ worth of juvenile convictions (amounting to over 6,500 cases) having ruled that the jailed kids had not had a fair hearing. The move comes after former Luzerne County Judge Mark Ciavarella was charged with accepting millions of dollars in kickbacks in exchange for sending young offenders to detention centers. “This is exactly the relief these kids needed,” said Marsha Levick, the legal director of Philadelphia-based Juvenile Law Center, which represents some of the youths, told MSNBC. “It’s the most serious judicial corruption scandal in our history and the court took an extraordinary step in addressing it.”
