World's Most Horrible Judge Going To Jail For Screwing Over Teens For Fun and Profit

It often seems to be that a lot of people get away with screwing over the little guy and getting rich in the process. Wall Street, anyone?

The mother of Edward Kenzakoski confronts the horrible
judge Mark Ciavarella. Kenzakoski committed
suicide after Ciavarella fraudulently sent
him to a youth prison for his fun and profit.  

So it was particularly satisfying to read that a Pennsylvania judge, Mark Ciavarella, has been sentenced to 28 years in jail for sending teenagers to a youth prison on trumped up charged because he made money from keeping the youth prison full. 

According to the web site Rolling Out:

"Ciavarella would sentence offenders with small offenses to months and, at times, yeas behind bars. He once sentenced a teen to trhee months in jail for creating a MySpace page that mocked her school's assistant principal. Ciavarella also sentenced another teen for 90 days in jail for a simple schoolyard fight."

In the scam, Ciavarella and fellow judge Michael Conahan received $2.6 million form the owner of the youth prison, PA Child Care.

Conahan and owners of the youth prison had previously pleaded guilty to crimes related to the case.

The Pennsylvania Supreme Court has overturned the conviction of 4,000 people sentenced by Ciavarella.  According to the Juvenile Law Center, at least 2,500 kids were affected by the purely evil Ciavarella and Conahan in the so-called Kids For Cash scandal.

Ciavarella and his cohorts really ruined some kids' promising lives by sentencing them to prison and in some cases drove them to suicide. One, Edward Kenzakoski, was a promising athlete who was improperly sentenced by Ciavarella and fell into depression and eventually committed suicide.

The photo in this post shows Kenzakoski's mother confronting Ciavarella. The image is heartbreaking. At least to most people. I have a feeling though, that Ciavarella doesn't give a whit if anybody was upset with his crimes.

The judge would get an average of $250 per kid he sentenced. So, yeah, Ciavarella pretty much thought the life of each and every teenager out there was worth about $250.

I'll admit I'm fascinated by Ciavarella in a morbid sort of way. He, a judge, would know more than just about everyone how devastating a criminal conviction could be for a teenager. It would follow them for the rest of their lives, affecting their ability to go to school, get a job, be successful.

And we are all victims in this. The primary victim is of course the teenager falsely convicted by the ikes of Ciavarella. But his actions probably made it more likely his victims would need some sort of public assistance in the the future. That's our tax money folks.

All because or creepy, horrible judge Ciavarella wanted to get rich, and it it hurt somebody, so what?

I hope all the kids Ciavarella improperly sentenced are OK and doing well outside of prison. But a part of me hopes that a few of them re-offended, and are back in prison and will meet Ciaveralla, 63, there.

He deserves a particularly miserable prison life, and anything that makes it more horrible will be fine with me.