RSSName That Party
Tom Bowler | April 1, 2009
I often wonder why on earth the Wall Street Journal added Thomas Frank to its roster. Frank is the guy who wrote What’s The Matter With Kansas, a book describing how the formerly progressive-minded citizens of Kansas were duped into voting for conservative candidates. Sadly, according to Mr. Frank, Kansans were too dull to perceive what was clearly in their own best interests.
Today Mr. Frank describes a kickback scheme in Luzerne County, Pennsylvania. Recently Judge Michael Conahan and Judge Mark Ciavarella both pleaded guilty to accepting kickbacks to the tune of $2.6 million from a privately run juvenile prison. In return for their millions the good judges provided taxpayer funding and client referrals to the private jail.
And here is what the judges delivered, according to the charges of the U.S. Attorney overseeing the case: In 2003 one of them, Judge Michael Conahan, who had authority over such expenses, defunded the county-owned detention center, channeling kids sentenced to detention to the private jail — along with the public’s money.
‘For good measure, the feds charge, Mr. Conahan also agreed to send the private facility $1.3 million per year in public funds. Over the succeeding years, the private jail, along with a second lockup-for-profit that had opened in another part of the state, won tens of millions of dollars in Luzerne County contracts, allegedly with the two judges’ help.
What has drawn the media’s attention, though, is the remarkable strictness of the judges’ judging. Mr. Conahan’s alleged partner in the scheme, Judge Mark Ciavarella Jr., reportedly sent kids to the private detention centers when probation officers didn’t think it was a good idea; he sent kids there when their crimes were nonviolent; he sent kids there when their crimes were insignificant. It was as though he was determined to keep those private prisons filled with children at all times. According to news stories, offenses as small as swiping a jar of nutmeg or throwing a piece of steak at an adult were enough to merit a trip to the hoosegow.
Over the years Mr. Ciavarella racked up a truly awesome score: He sent kids to detention instead of other options at twice the state average, according to the New York Times. He tried a prodigious number of cases in which the accused child had no lawyer — here, says the Times, the judge’s numbers were fully 10 times the state average. And he did it fast, sometimes rendering a verdict “in the neighborhood of a minute-and-a-half to three minutes,” according to the judge tasked with reconsidering Mr. Ciavarella’s work.’
Outrageous, to be sure, but the truly perverse thing about Mr. Frank’s column is the target of his outrage. If the judges themselves bear any responsibility, as far as Mr. Frank is concerned it’s hardly worth a mention. He recites the facts but passes no judgment. It turns out, America is at fault. The judges would seem to be victims of American political tradition.
‘My question is, what have the Luzerne County judges done that deviates in the least from our American political traditions? These jurists have merely taken to heart the unvarying message of 40 years’ worth of election results — that more people, many more, need to go to jail — and have come up with an entrepreneurial solution to the problem.
We the people say it loud and clear every Election Day, in high-crime periods as well as peaceful stretches: More of our population needs to be behind bars. We love retribution so much we make hits of TV shows in which society’s ne’er-do-wells come in for lectures not only by stern, righteous judges, but by tattooed, mulletted bounty hunters as well.’
Mr. Frank quotes Virginia Senator Jim Webb, a Democrat, offering a sobering statistic that highlights the extent to which American capitalism and a vindictive American public have victimized the powerless — and judges too.
‘Three strikes laws, mandatory sentencing laws, zero-tolerance policies. Maybe they aren’t “fair,” but they’ve helped to make the U.S. number one in percentage of population in the clink — in fact, as Virginia Democratic Sen. Jim Webb pointed out in Parade magazine on Sunday, America has an amazing 25% of the world’s prisoners.’
Having identified the severity of our judicial illness, Mr. Frank then he zeroes in on the root of it. The origin of so depraved a mindset, a mindset capable of spawning a system that jails Pennsylvania children for monetary gain, was none other than the Republican party.
‘In the 1990s, when we started to realize that child crooks were “superpredators” who needed to go to prison along with everyone else, some were unwilling to act. Others stepped up. “We’ve got to quit coddling these violent kids like nothing is going on,” said Sen. Orrin Hatch (R., Utah) in 1996. “Getting some of these do-gooder liberals to do what is right is real tough. We’d all like to rehabilitate these kids, but by gosh we are in a different age.”‘
Privatizing the Pennsylvania prison is to blame. Judges were incentivized. Mr. Frank predicts:
Today the do-gooders revile those efforts as “kickbacks,” but before long we will see them as legitimate tools of justice.
One might wonder, why is there no outrage for Judge Michael Conahan and Judge Mark Ciavarella who raked in $2.6 million sending kids to jail? Here’s a clue. They’re Democrats. Duped by Republicans. Victims of harsh American capitalism. But then, might one also wonder why the part about the Conahan’s and Ciavarella’s party affiliation never made it into Frank’s column? Nah. No need for wonder.
Comic relief. The truly wondrous thing is how Frank made the WSJ team. I mean, really. Can you make this stuff up?
Contributor's website: http://www.libertarianleanings.com
Name That Party
Tom Bowler | April 1, 2009
I often wonder why on earth the Wall Street Journal added Thomas Frank to its roster. Frank is the guy who wrote What’s The Matter With Kansas, a book describing how the formerly progressive-minded citizens of Kansas were duped into voting for conservative candidates. Sadly, according to Mr. Frank, Kansans were too dull to perceive what was clearly in their own best interests.
Today Mr. Frank describes a kickback scheme in Luzerne County, Pennsylvania. Recently Judge Michael Conahan and Judge Mark Ciavarella both pleaded guilty to accepting kickbacks to the tune of $2.6 million from a privately run juvenile prison. In return for their millions the good judges provided taxpayer funding and client referrals to the private jail.
And here is what the judges delivered, according to the charges of the U.S. Attorney overseeing the case: In 2003 one of them, Judge Michael Conahan, who had authority over such expenses, defunded the county-owned detention center, channeling kids sentenced to detention to the private jail — along with the public’s money.
‘For good measure, the feds charge, Mr. Conahan also agreed to send the private facility $1.3 million per year in public funds. Over the succeeding years, the private jail, along with a second lockup-for-profit that had opened in another part of the state, won tens of millions of dollars in Luzerne County contracts, allegedly with the two judges’ help.
What has drawn the media’s attention, though, is the remarkable strictness of the judges’ judging. Mr. Conahan’s alleged partner in the scheme, Judge Mark Ciavarella Jr., reportedly sent kids to the private detention centers when probation officers didn’t think it was a good idea; he sent kids there when their crimes were nonviolent; he sent kids there when their crimes were insignificant. It was as though he was determined to keep those private prisons filled with children at all times. According to news stories, offenses as small as swiping a jar of nutmeg or throwing a piece of steak at an adult were enough to merit a trip to the hoosegow.
Over the years Mr. Ciavarella racked up a truly awesome score: He sent kids to detention instead of other options at twice the state average, according to the New York Times. He tried a prodigious number of cases in which the accused child had no lawyer — here, says the Times, the judge’s numbers were fully 10 times the state average. And he did it fast, sometimes rendering a verdict “in the neighborhood of a minute-and-a-half to three minutes,” according to the judge tasked with reconsidering Mr. Ciavarella’s work.’
Outrageous, to be sure, but the truly perverse thing about Mr. Frank’s column is the target of his outrage. If the judges themselves bear any responsibility, as far as Mr. Frank is concerned it’s hardly worth a mention. He recites the facts but passes no judgment. It turns out, America is at fault. The judges would seem to be victims of American political tradition.
‘My question is, what have the Luzerne County judges done that deviates in the least from our American political traditions? These jurists have merely taken to heart the unvarying message of 40 years’ worth of election results — that more people, many more, need to go to jail — and have come up with an entrepreneurial solution to the problem.
We the people say it loud and clear every Election Day, in high-crime periods as well as peaceful stretches: More of our population needs to be behind bars. We love retribution so much we make hits of TV shows in which society’s ne’er-do-wells come in for lectures not only by stern, righteous judges, but by tattooed, mulletted bounty hunters as well.’
Mr. Frank quotes Virginia Senator Jim Webb, a Democrat, offering a sobering statistic that highlights the extent to which American capitalism and a vindictive American public have victimized the powerless — and judges too.
‘Three strikes laws, mandatory sentencing laws, zero-tolerance policies. Maybe they aren’t “fair,” but they’ve helped to make the U.S. number one in percentage of population in the clink — in fact, as Virginia Democratic Sen. Jim Webb pointed out in Parade magazine on Sunday, America has an amazing 25% of the world’s prisoners.’
Having identified the severity of our judicial illness, Mr. Frank then he zeroes in on the root of it. The origin of so depraved a mindset, a mindset capable of spawning a system that jails Pennsylvania children for monetary gain, was none other than the Republican party.
‘In the 1990s, when we started to realize that child crooks were “superpredators” who needed to go to prison along with everyone else, some were unwilling to act. Others stepped up. “We’ve got to quit coddling these violent kids like nothing is going on,” said Sen. Orrin Hatch (R., Utah) in 1996. “Getting some of these do-gooder liberals to do what is right is real tough. We’d all like to rehabilitate these kids, but by gosh we are in a different age.”‘
Privatizing the Pennsylvania prison is to blame. Judges were incentivized. Mr. Frank predicts:
Today the do-gooders revile those efforts as “kickbacks,” but before long we will see them as legitimate tools of justice.
One might wonder, why is there no outrage for Judge Michael Conahan and Judge Mark Ciavarella who raked in $2.6 million sending kids to jail? Here’s a clue. They’re Democrats. Duped by Republicans. Victims of harsh American capitalism. But then, might one also wonder why the part about the Conahan’s and Ciavarella’s party affiliation never made it into Frank’s column? Nah. No need for wonder.
Comic relief. The truly wondrous thing is how Frank made the WSJ team. I mean, really. Can you make this stuff up?
Contributor's website: http://www.libertarianleanings.com
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