What to do when the system breaks down?
The New York Times recently reported on a Pennsylvania judge who plead guilty to incarcerating juveniles for case. The judge admitted to taking kickbacks for sending juvenile offenders to two privately run detention centers. Over 5,000 juveniles have been sentenced since the scheme started, and the judge pocketed approximately 2.6 million. According to the report, the lawyers are expecting a sentence of 87 months. When you consider the impact on those kids who shouldn't have been sent to a detention center, that seems like an awfully short sentence. Most drug offenders get substantially more time than.
I'm sure there is some percentage of offenders that would have been sentenced to the detention center, but there is also some percentage that shouldn't. He was making a nice chunk of money; about $500,000 a year. No doubt that influence his decisions. The kids were money - not children in trouble, who needed help from the system.
No amount of money can compensate those children who shouldn't have been sent to detention. Society is probably going to have to bear the costs for some; no doubt there are some who will be lead down the wrong path because of what happened. Kids are especially prone to becoming what people think of them. If society thinks they are a failure, the tendency is to become one.
I don't know how you identify those who were improperly sentenced. I think you ought to accept that money influenced every single decision. Every case needs to be evaluated, and relief needs to be tailored to be each child. If they are still detained, release is only the beginning. They need to be provided the help and services they need to put their life back together.
Does this also say something about the privatization of detention facilities? Any time money is introduced into the equation, there are those who are going to take advantage of it. It's not surprising something like this happened when you recognize the large sums of involved. Maybe this will be a lesson; at a minimum, we need oversight to ensure something like this doesn't happen again.
There is no easy solution to this issue. Let's hope those in Pennsylvania recognize this, and ensure those kids are taken care of.
