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Former judges Mark Ciavarella and Michael Conahan have been ordered in U.S. District Court to pay more than $200 million to the victims.
It is the right decision.
As the Associated Press and Sun-Gazette noted in Tuesday's decision in covering the judgment, Ciavarella and Conahan perpetrated a scheme in which they shut down a county-operated detention center and then sent young offenders to a privately-operated detention center, the owners of which had illegally paid the two judges nearly $3 million. Some of the children sent to the privately-run detention centers were as young as 8 years old and many were first-time offenders. The offenses for which juveniles were imprisoned included jaywalking, smoking on school grounds and truancy.
In the end, about 4,000 convictions were thrown out by the state's Supreme Court.
"Ciavarella and Conahan abandoned their oath and breached the public trust," U.S. District Judge Christopher Conner wrote as he issued the judgment.
Our justice system requires the public's trust. It requires that sentences be determined fairly and with the concept that all deserve equal treatment under the law and equal protection under the law. Conner is correct that the two former judges violated that trust. Ciavarella and Conahan made a mockery out of the idea of a fair and dispassionate court that recognizes the inherent equality of people. Instead, they delivered a court that served not the public's interests and not any legitimate interpretation of justice but served their own bank accounts.
The order, we hope, will be an effective deterrent for any other judge tempted to put their own enrichment ahead of justice. And we are confident it is an appropriate punishment for two who, when charged to do so, greedily failed.