CNN reports that two corrupt Luzerne County judges received $2.6 million in kickbacks for sending kids with minor offenses to privately-run boot camps.
One of the two judges shut down the state’s juvenile detention facility in Luzerne County and used the money earmarked for that facility to provide a ‘multimillion dollar lease for the private facility’.
The other judge (a) failed to advise children and parents of their right to counsel and (b) sent kids away for offenses like ‘mocking an assistant principal on a MySpace page’.
The purpose of the kickbacks was to enable the private contractor, Mid-Atlantic Counseling, to demonstrate its viability as an alternative to state-run facilities.
El Somnambulo once again points out that ‘privatization’ is almost always a disaster. Just like prison health care, having ‘for-profit’ firms providing state services simply ensures that the firms will do as little as they can get away with in order to maximize profits. Absent a real watchdog, state funds are ripped off while those depending on the privately-provided services become victims. From the article:
“Privatizing detention facilities is a growing in popularity among governments because the companies say they offer lower rates than the state.
Pennsylvania has the second highest number of private facilities after Florida, accounting for about 11 percent of the private facilities in the United States, according to the National Center for Juvenile Justice in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
Critics say private prisons lack transparency because they don’t go through the same inspections and audits as a state facility, and this may have allowed payoffs to go so long without being noticed.
“Once somebody is going to make more money by holding more kids, there is a pretty good predictable profit motive,” said criminal justice consultant Judith Greene, who heads a nonprofit group called Justice Strategies. “It’s predictable that companies are going to tolerate certain behaviors they shouldn’t.”
An audit draft obtained by the Philadelphia Inquirer showed that Luzerne County was spending more than $1.2 million in expenses that weren’t allowed under state regulations. The Pennsylvania Department of Public Welfare, the agency overseeing the audits, says the audit drafts are not final.”