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Student Satirist Gets 3 Months; the Judge, Likely More
ponraul writes "When Judge Mark A. Ciavarella Jr., 58, sentenced Hillary Transue, 17, on a harassment charge stemming from a MySpace parody of her high school's assistant principal, Hillary expected to be let off with a stern lecture; instead, the Wilkes-Barre, PA area teen got three months in a commercially operated juvenile detention center. In a reversal of fortune, Ciavarella and his colleague, Judge Conahan, 56, find themselves trying to plea-bargain an 87-month sentence in Federal correctional facilities relating to a kick-back scheme that netted the pair $2.6 Million and PA Child Care 5000 inmates." True poetic justice would be for these corrupt, callous judges to serve their sentences in the same kind of environment to which they were happy to dispatch juvenile defendants.
im suprised myspace isnt filtered in china
True poetic justice would be for these corrupt, callous judges to serve their sentences in the same kind of environment to which they were happy to dispatch juvenile defendants.
Also operated on commercial grounds? Because the very concept of a commercial prison to me seems...something out of a really bad science fiction movie....
People replying to my sig annoy me. That's why I change it all the time.
So do all the kids still have these marks on their records?
If so then these judges did permanent damage to these individuals. The judges should be charged with much more serious crimes. One count for every person they fucked over. Judges especially need to be held to higher standards, put them in prison for life.
TRUE poetic justice would see them incarcerated in the juvenile detention facilities themselves, surrounded by the very kids they sent there.
http://twitter.com/OLDTELEGRAM
That's what you get for setting up a privately-owned for-profit detention system.
These two scumbags are in my state. And I'm in law school, so they also represent my profession. I've of course been following this story on the local media.
They sent kids to privately owned and operated juvenile detention facilities in exchange for kickbacks. They ruined the lives of children for money.
Hangings too good for 'em.
I didn't see the myspace page or know anything about that case, but he should have been disbarred for that ruling alone if it was strictly satire.
"Ubuntu" -- an African word, meaning "Slackware is too hard for me". - stolen from Dan C alt.os.linux.slackware
I dunno, man. I'd imagine that being a former judge in a prison is right up there with being a former prosecutor. I wouldn't be surprised if they have to keep him on 24-hour isolation and/or suicide watch. He deserves much worse, but I suspect this will not be a cakewalk for him either.
1. PA Child Care should be shut down. If their business model depends on crooked judges, their business model is wrong.
2. Now every single case that ended with juveniles sentenced there should be reviewed. (Looks like they're only looking at the one judge's 5000 cases. They need to look at all of them.) The former judge should be billed for all expenses.
3. Whoever paid the bribes, and whoever authorized them, and whoever knew about this business model and kept quiet, also need to be tried.
4. An appropriate punishment would be a month in jail for every month spent in the facility for every inmate he wrongfully sent there.
5. No profit.
If the masses can keep you down, you're not the Ubermensch.
For her this will be much worse than just three months wasted. I guess she will now have a "criminal record". Which means that the rest of her life she will have problems getting visa's, she will have rather tough job interviews, etc. Because often enough there is the simple question "were you ever.....". And those questions aren't distinguishing between what the conviction was for, and how long ago it happened. Very sad....
Browsers shouldn't have a back button!! It's all about going forward...
Most prisoners are in for minor drug offenses. When will people realize that THE MAJORITY of judges are corrupt / receiving 'kickbacks' from the corrupt system, in which they get paid more and are employed longer for the more people the lock up.This not only goes for judges but for everyone employed in corrections, including the police and prison guards, the prison industrial complex, etc.
With the states, the federal government, running massive deficits w/ no end in sight, how long can we afford to wait?
Legalize and regulate, no person should be a criminal for voluntarily putting a substance in his own body, no matter how harmful the substance is, so long as they don't put any other individuals at risk (eg, permit sale, possession, and use, but still prohibit driving under the influence of anything and giving these substances to minors). Anything short is anti-free-society.
> Just because the sentencing was wrong doesn't mean the crime wasn't committed.
You're making the assumption that even though the sentence was wrong, the judgement was not. You're assuming that a 'non-corrupt' judge would have also found them all guilty.
There are some things in this world that should never be run by private companies for the purposes of making a profit.
Prisons are one of them. The idea that people can make a profit by locking people up is repugnant. Much in the same way that mercenary forces are generally a bad idea. The last people you want are those that *want* more war because that way they make more money.
The profit incentive is fine in most cases, and generally I'm pro the free market, but there are some things we don't want to be encouraging.
Paul
Paul Leader
An AC says before if these marks are still on the records for the kids. Well why wouldn't they be? Just because the sentencing was wrong doesn't mean the crime wasn't committed.
At least in the case of Hillary Transue there was no crime, satire is constitutionally protect free speech. The judge was obviously making up crimes so he could sentence more kids to jail. Every one of the cases this judge had will have to be reviewed and retried, or if that's too expensive, they'll just have to expunge the records of everyone.
All ideas^H^H^H^H^Hprocesses in this post are Patent Pending. (as well as the process of patenting all postings)
Judicial corruption should get zero tolerance. For each of the 5000 kids sent to these private prisons for the profit of the judges, the judges should have an equal number of months to the kids' sentences removed from their lives. The punishment must fit the crime. Clearly, for the aggregate theft of life from children, these judges deserve death.
What these judges have done, in terms of total injury to others, is far worse than a single murder. They have also undermined the faith of the public in the justice system. This faith can only be restored by reforms to the justice system so that punishments truly fit the harms caused by the crimes.
Until we have a justice system in which men such as this face a sentence of death, we really don't have justice. Similarly, why is Bernie Madoff still walking around free? Steal $50 from a liquor store, go to jail. Steal $50 billion, and you're treated far better. And what about Dick Cheney? Our system is about punishing the poor and minorities in order to enforce a class system, not about really going after the psychopaths who are pushing our civilization over the edge.
"with their freedom lost all virtue lose" - Milton
Non-NYTimes link:
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/nationworld/2008739323_judges13.html
In case you hate being asked to log in to read an article.
I talk about stuff.
If you were a judge would you heavily sentence another judge? (Not that I know this is the case, there could be maximum sentencing guidelines at work here.)
If the "justice system" can't be trusted to correctly hand down minor sentences, why on earth do you think they would be able to adminster the death penalty appropriately?
Um..... WHAT?!
So you're position is that if a cop and a prosecutor think you are guilty, then you must be guilty and we should just skip the whole "fair trial" thing?
it's a sad sad world when people don't understand the point of checks and balances.
Note to self: If you're going to make fun of someone on MySpace, do it under an alias. Like "Bill Gates" for instance.
I've abandoned my search for truth; now I'm just looking for some useful delusions.
Not even an allegation of abuse?
That seems awfully unlikely. Even if none at all were going on, there are some kids who would claim it was, if for no better reason than to fuck with the administrators, or even just to get attention.
And the percentage of kids who would make something like that up is probably higher among those that end up getting sent to a juvenile detention facility than among the general populace.
To go five years without even a single accusation (even if it's proven false) makes me think that complaints are simply ignored and no records kept.
If the masses can keep you down, you're not the Ubermensch.
That is *slavery* for profit, human trafficking.
But you have to remember that a cop has to press the charges to be heard before the judge, and a prosecutor argue the case. So I would think if the case was worth trying or pressing charges, then the crime did happen.
Really? REALLY?
Well, if that's the case, why do we even have trials? Seems pretty pointless...
During primaries lasty year, I had 2 votes: One in primaries and on in the jury box. And I consider my jury box vote so much more worthy than a primary vote.
We saw a case where a guy was charged with a DUI. Defendant took stand and said he was going to a Sundance festival which they hold around here. He was stockpiling alcohol for the parties. He parked and started to drink, cause it was too late for pitching the tent. Cop playing rent-a-cop was watching over the festival. He claimed that he saw defendant driving erratic.
Problem:
1. radioed for help to an on-duty cop. aww shucks. no logs
2. main cop said one thing in deposition. said something else in open court. lied.
3. log books not filled out. shucks.
4. timing on cops story didnt work out. there was an hour of unaccounted time. defendant explained what happened and made sense timewise and reasonwise.
5. main cop was just smarmy on stand. there was stuff he was hiding and the defense attorney found it.
Yeah, took us 5 minutes for a not guilty verdict. Took us longer to get the attorneys re-convened. However, considering the opinion in the jury room, we would have tried the cops for perjury. But thats not how our systems works :( Corrupted officials keep their jobs. hurray.
It's just a bad idea to have any for profit company running criminal justice operations such as prisons. I remember a story about one of the companies running many Texas prisons. The law forbids them from lobbying about laws increasing the penalties for crimes or making new criminal laws. Although they were prohibited from outright lobbying they were found to be using "back door" means to influence the state legislature. Some of the things they were doing is to form "community organizations" which they then funded heavily.
The profit motive in criminal justice should just be eliminated. Criminal justice should be run entirely by the state. We should still have prisons just stop having private companies operate them.
The issue of whether somebody is a "public figure" affects libel lawsuits - if the principal were suing her, it might have some relevance.
This is a criminal case - the principal was alleging "harassment" or some similarly bogus charge.
Bill Stewart
New Fast-Compression-only CPR http://preview.tinyurl.com/dy575ks
Same reason you'd outsource anything else - constrain costs and not be stuck with inventory.
I thought the usual reason was to shift away responsibility, benefit your friends and/or receive kickbacks.
"Convictions are more dangerous enemies of truth than lies."
For years I've said that prior to being allowed to sit on the bench, a judge should have to spend a week in jail. How can one "fairly" give out punishment when they have no idea what said punishment is like?