News Summary February 18 –March 4, 2011

Pennsylvania Summary

Associated Press (AP) – Allentown Bureau ‘Pa. judge guilty of racketeering in kickback case’ – February 18, 2011 Posted on: http://pottsmerc.com/articles/2011/02/18/news/doc4d5ee937a6cd9029458749.txt

A former juvenile court judge was convicted Friday of racketeering in a case that accused him of sending youth offenders to for-profit detention centers in exchange for millions of dollars in illicit payments from the builder and owner of the lockups…

The Times Leader (Wilkes-Barre) ‘Law seeks to correct its wrongs’ – February 19, 2011 http://www.timesleader.com/news/Law_seeks_to_correct_its_wrongs_02-18-2011.html

State Sen. Lisa Baker said the verdicts in the Mark Ciavarella corruption trial “confirm what our community has painfully learned over two years.”…Baker, R-Lehman Twp., has launched a push for juvenile justice reform by introducing a series of bills to protect the fundamental rights of kids entering the system…

The Morning Call (Allentown) ‘Ciavarella had some help perpetrating his crimes’ – February 19, 2011 http://articles.mcall.com/2011-02-19/news/mc-paul-carpenter-ciavarella-20110219_1_juvenile-law- center-ciavarella-and-conahan-judge-mark-ciavarella

Justice, a word that probably is not in former so-called Judge Mark Ciavarella's vocabulary, has finally been served. Ciavarella was convicted Friday on 12 federal counts involving a scheme in Luzerne County to put thousands of children in commercial juvenile detention facilities in return for millions in payoffs from the operators of the facilities…As early as 2005, the Supremes, responsible for the integrity of all courts in the state, were informed that something very bad was happening in Luzerne County. The Philadelphia-based Juvenile Law Center notified the high court that juveniles in Luzerne County were being jailed after they were denied the right to counsel…

The Times Leader (Wilkes-Barre) ‘Lawyers: Ruling aids civil suits’ – February 20, 2011 http://www.timesleader.com/news/Lawyers__Ruling_aids_civil_suits_02-20-2011.html

Two attorneys representing juveniles in the “kids for cash” civil lawsuits said Friday’s verdict in former Judge Mark Ciavarella’s criminal trial won’t negatively impact the suits and may actually help bolster the claims…

1 News Summary February 18 –March 4, 2011

The Times Leader (Wilkes-Barre) ‘Out of scandal, a new system’ – February 21, 2011 http://www.timesleader.com/news/Out_of_scandal__a_new_system_02-20-2011.html

Marred by scandal, Luzerne County’s juvenile justice system has begun to emerge from the rubble with the goal of some day becoming a model for the state. For the past two years, the juvenile court system has operated under a state a turmoil as officials worked to figure out how to right the wrongs that were committed under former juvenile Judge Mark Ciavarella’s 12-year tenure…

Citizens’ Voice (Wilkes-Barre) ‘Efforts underway to repair Luzerne County juvenile court system’ – February 21, 2011 http://thetimes-tribune.com/news/efforts-underway-to-repair-luzerne-county-juvenile-court-system- 1.1108188#axzz1Ej2kyN9K

In a matter of minutes, a boy with buzzed hair shed his military fatigues and heavy-duty boots and traded them for a coat, sweatpants and sneakers he pulled from a clear plastic trash bag…The boy had just stood before Luzerne County Judge David Lupas, who commended him for the progress he made at the camp and took special interest in the boy's two spelling bee titles before he ruled the boy could return home…This isn't the story people usually tell about Luzerne County's juvenile court…

Scranton Times-Tribune ‘Key juvenile court reforms’ – February 21, 2011 http://thetimes-tribune.com/news/key-juvenile-court-reforms-1.1108187#axzz1Ej2kyN9K

State Sen. Lisa Baker, R-20, Lehman Twp., will introduce a bundle of bills that would prohibit the waiver of counsel in juvenile delinquency hearings, expedite appeals and require judges to explain on the record the reasoning behind the dispositions they enter…

The Times Leader (Wilkes-Barre) ‘OPINION: Systemic ills of court system must be tackled’ – February 22, 2011 http://www.timesleader.com/opinion/columnists/guydish/Systemic_ills__of_court_system__must_b e_tackled_MARK_GUYDISH_OPINION_02-21-2011.html

The e-mail subject line was “best quote,” and while it’s too early to declare a winner, this has to be among the nominees. The writer, who asked for anonymity, recounted a conversation shortly after the verdict in former Luzerne County Judge Mark Ciavarella’s trial…The belief here is that those days are over, thanks to the work of attorney Al Flora since becoming chief public defender. Yes, Flora also served as Ciavarella’s lead defense attorney, and was overzealous in declaring Ciavarella’s conviction on racketeering and money laundering charges a victory…

2 News Summary February 18 –March 4, 2011

Pittsburgh Post-Gazette ‘Letters: Try him as adult’ – February 22, 2011 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/11053/1126994-110.stm

Regarding the editorial "Child's Story: Superior Court Must End Wonderland Justice" (Jan. 31): I believe that Jordan Brown should be treated like any other person charged with killing another. He is charged with killing his father's fiancée and unborn child and shows no remorse. At age 11, a person should know killing someone is against the law…

The Reading Eagle ‘Holly Herman: Fix Abraxas Academy ills’ – February 24, 2011 http://readingeagle.com/article.aspx?id=289813

The conviction last Friday of former Luzerne County Judge Mark A. Ciavarella Jr. in the "cash for kids" scheme made national news. Ciavarella was convicted of receiving $1 million from the builder of a detention center. Berks County Senior Judge Arthur E. Grim presided over the cases of kids whom Ciavarella sentenced to the facility. While Ciavarella's trial was going on in Scranton, the Reading Eagle was reporting on cases of juveniles in a Nov. 15 riot in Abraxas Academy, New Morgan…

The Altoona Mirror ‘Blair courts ahead of state’ – February 27, 2011 http://www.altoonamirror.com/page/content.detail/id/547657/Blair-courts-ahead-of-state.html? nav=742

A 16-year-old Blair County boy was in Juvenile Court before Blair County President Judge Jolene G. Kopriva last week stating that he wanted to leave detention and live with his grandfather. That wasn't in the cards, the judge explained…At Greystone, the boy will undergo anger management and a mental health evaluation, abide by rules, receive his education and work on a plan to return home…

The Times Leader (Wilkes-Barre) ‘Opinion: Go beyond scandal to promote change’ – February 27, 2011 http://www.timesleader.com/opinion/Go_beyond_scandal_to_promote_change_02-27-2011.html

RATHER THAN TRY and re-try former Luzerne County judge Mark A. Ciavarella Jr. in the court of public opinion, or try to psychoanalyze the youths (and parents of youths) who appeared years ago in his juvenile court, why don’t we try something else?...

3 News Summary February 18 –March 4, 2011

The Times Leader (Wilkes-Barre) ‘COMMENTARY: Real juvenile justice reform needed for area to recover’ – March 1, 2011 http://www.timesleader.com/opinion/commentary/Real_juvenile_justice_reform_needed_for_area_t o_recover_COMMENTARY_John_Yudichak_02-28-2011.html

WHEN A former Luzerne County judge recently was found guilty of racketeering and other offenses in connection with the incarceration of children at a Luzerne County juvenile detention center, the guilty verdict was only the first step toward healing families stung by this scandal and moving our community forward…

The Times Leader (Wilkes-Barre) ‘Area reps laud high court’s juvie justice reforms’ – March 2, 2011 http://www.timesleader.com/news/Area_reps_laud_high_court_rsquo_s_juvie_justice_reforms_03- 02-2011.html

Luzerne County’s representatives in the state Legislature voiced support Tuesday of the state Supreme Court’s implementation of reforms to the juvenile justice system. The high court on Tuesday issued an update to statewide changes already in place or under consideration to address issues within the juvenile justice system that were revealed by the corruption scandal in Luzerne County…

The Times Leader (Wilkes-Barre) ‘Pa. juvie justice promise is made’ – March 2, 2011 http://www.timesleader.com/news/Pa__juvie_justice_promise_is_made_03-02-2011.html

The state Supreme Court on Tuesday issued an update to statewide changes that have been made or are currently being contemplated to address issues within the juvenile justice system that were revealed by the corruption scandal in Luzerne County…

Citizens’ Voice (Wilkes-Barre) ‘State Supreme Court chief outlines juvenile justice reform’ – March 2, 2011 http://citizensvoice.com/news/state-supreme-court-chief-outlines-juvenile-justice-reform- 1.1112550#axzz1Fdpexjao

Nine months after a state commission recommended sweeping changes for the corruption-stained juvenile justice system, young defendants have greater access to legal representation, victims have a voice in court proceedings and judges are required to provide justification before sending a youth to detention…

4 News Summary February 18 –March 4, 2011

Citizens’ Voice (Wilkes-Barre) ‘New youth aid panels follow state recommended reforms’ – March 3, 2011 http://citizensvoice.com/news/new-youth-aid-panels-follow-state-recommended-reforms- 1.1113168#axzz1Fdpexjao

A new program for disciplining young people who break the law in Luzerne County dovetails with state efforts to reform juvenile justice proceedings, the program's coordinator said Wednesday. Bob Stevens said the county's youth aid panels follow the reforms of the state Interbranch Commission on Juvenile Justice by guiding juveniles to "restorative outcomes so they end up not going down that path again."…

The Times Leader (Wilkes-Barre) ‘Our Opinion: It’s up to public to push reforms’ – March 4, 2011 http://www.timesleader.com/opinion/It_rsquo_s_up_to_public_to_push_reforms_03-03-2011.html

THE CLEANUP from Luzerne County’s “kids-for-cash” scandal won’t be quick, simple or nearly as enthralling as actor Charlie Sheen’s outlandish meltdown and whatever fleeting public fascinations might come next. All the more reason area residents should be encouraged this week by state Supreme Court Chief Justice Ronald Castille’s release of a “progress report.”…

Citizens’ Voice (Wilkes-Barre) ‘County: Scope of kids-for-cash kickback scheme is exaggerated’ – March 4, 2011 http://citizensvoice.com/news/county-scope-of-kids-for-cash-kickback-scheme-is-exaggerated- 1.1113825#axzz1Fdpexjao

A civil complaint linking the Luzerne County government and former county officials to the "culture of corruption" that fueled an alleged kids-for-cash kickback scheme is based "entirely on innuendo and conjecture" and should be dismissed, the county's attorneys said in a filing in U.S. District Court Thursday…

Pittsburgh Post-Gazette ‘Pay now or pay more later’ – March 04, 2011 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/11063/1129482-109.stm

We can pay now for effective programs or we can pay much more later. These words, spoken by gubernatorial candidate Tom Corbett last summer about how to prevent school failure, juvenile delinquency and crime, demonstrate his keen awareness of the impact of the budget decisions he's now weighing. As he outlined to a roomful of child advocates at a United Way meeting, his ideas were consistent with his work as chair of the Pennsylvania Commission on Crime and Delinquency, which fully supported research-based juvenile programs that reduce both crime and prison costs…

5 News Summary February 18 –March 4, 2011

National Summary

Washington City Paper – Online (DC) ‘Setting Juveniles Straight in D.C. Youth Court’ – February 18, 2011 http://www.washingtoncitypaper.com/blogs/citydesk/2011/02/18/setting-juveniles-straight-in-d-c- youth-court/

Eight kids sit swiveling in their chairs, talking and chatting like it's just another Saturday morning. A man in front of them lays down some ground rules…The eight kids who are laughing and swiveling are the jury members, completing part of their sentence from when they sat before a similar judge and jury, some Saturday mornings ago. Jury duty is what makes youth court work—it's not like the jury duty you might be used to…

Ventura County Star (CA) ‘Governor wants to phase out state juvenile justice system’ – February 19, 2011 http://www.vcstar.com/news/2011/feb/19/governor-wants-to-phase-out-state-juvenile/

Gov. Jerry Brown is proposing to close all state institutions holding violent young offenders and give counties the job of treating and housing them…

NPR ‘Pa. Juvenile Justice In Spotlight After Verdict’ – February 20, 2011 http://www.npr.org/2011/02/20/133920701/Pa-Verdict-Highlights-Flaws-In-Juvenile-Justice-System

A former Pennsylvania judge faces more than 150 years in prison for his role in a $2.8 million bribery scandal known as "cash for kids" after a jury convicted him Friday of taking kickbacks from the developer of a private detention center. But critics of the state's juvenile justice system say more reforms are still needed…

The Orlando Sentinel (FL) ‘Protecting students' rights can be thorny’ – February 20, 2011 http://articles.orlandosentinel.com/2011-02-20/features/os-law-and-you-schools-justice- 20110215_1_darrion-denson-juvenile-justice-school-cop

Student rights became an explosive issue in September after the alleged hazing of Dr. Phillips High School student Darrion Denson, who accused fellow football players of attacking him and throwing him into a garbage can. The incident drew national attention, sparked a criminal investigation and created a public war of words between Denson's lawyer and the school district… But the school district's actions in this case were directly related to the laws and rules designed to protect the rights of students. Schools and the juvenile justice system have to manage a delicate balance. Both groups are required to protect the privacy of students, but they also work together daily and share information…

6 News Summary February 18 –March 4, 2011

Twin Cities Daily Planet (MN) ‘How young is too young?’ – February 21, 2011 http://www.tcdailyplanet.net/news/2011/02/19/how-young-too-young

As she had done so many times before, Lynn Johnson dropped off her daughter at day care on June 16, 2006. It would be the last time. The 13-year-old son of the day care provider sexually assaulted Johnson's 2-year-old daughter, Emily, before violently throwing the toddler against a wall…At the time of the incident, their daughter's killer was 19 days shy of his 14th birthday, meaning he could not be tried as an adult…Currently, children ages 14-17 who are alleged to have committed a felony-level offense can be certified as adults for criminal court or may be prosecuted as an extended jurisdiction juvenile to give the child one last chance to stay law-abiding…

Good Morning America – ABC News ‘Pennsylvania Judge Convicted in Alleged 'Kids for Cash' Scheme’ – February 21, 2011 http://abcnews.go.com/US/mark-ciavarella-pa-juvenile-court-judge-convicted-alleged/story? id=12965182

A former juvenile court judge in Pennsylvania could face more than 10 years in prison after being convicted in what prosecutors called a "kids for cash" scheme…

Democracy Now ‘Convicted in Pennsylvania Kids-for-Cash Scheme, Faces Long Prison Term and Class-Action Lawsuit’ – February 22, 2011 http://www.democracynow.org/2011/2/22/judge_convicted_in_pennsylvania_kids_for

A federal jury has found a former Pennsylvania judge guilty of participating in a so-called "kids-for- cash" scheme, in which he received money in exchange for sending juvenile offenders to for-profit youth jails over the years. Former Luzerne County Judge Mark Ciavarella, Jr. was convicted Friday of accepting bribes and kickbacks for putting juveniles into detention centers operated by PA Child Care and a sister company, Western Pennsylvania Child Care. Ciavarella and another judge, Michael Conahan, are said to have received $2.6 million dollars for their efforts. Ciavarella faces a maximum sentence of 157 years in prison, in addition to a class-action lawsuit on behalf of the youths’ families….

The Joy Behar Show ‘Cash for Kids?’ – February 22, 2011 Please click the link below to view the segment: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pqgs6Ol5PSc

JOY BEHAR, HOST: Here`s a story that really ticks me off. A Pennsylvania judge has been convicted for giving kids harsh sentences in private prisons for minor infractions. Why? Because the prisons were paying him, that`s why…

7 News Summary February 18 –March 4, 2011

The Today Show – NBC ‘Today Show – Kids For Cash’ – February 23, 2011 Please click the link below to view the segment: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oNn-lzSYNNc

Ann Curry talks to Sandy Fonzo, the aggravated and grieving mother of a former PA Child Care inmate, about the conviction of Judge Mark A. Ciavarella Jr., the judge that put kids in juvenile hall when they didn't need to be put there in exchange for cash

The Dayton Daily News (OH) ‘Sexting’ bill gives options to prosecutors’ – February 24, 2011 http://www.daytondailynews.com/news/dayton-news/sexting-bill-gives-options-to-prosecutors- 1090089.html

A local legislator wants to provide prosecutors and judges with an additional tool when faced with cases involving minors sending nude images of themselves to other minors via cell phones. Rep. Ron Maag, R-Salem Twp., has introduced House Bill 53, legislation aimed at addressing the issue commonly referred to as “sexting.” HB 53 would make the offense a first degree misdemeanor, with a penalty of no more than six months in prison and a fine of more than $1,000…

St. Petersburg Times (FL) ‘Catching young criminals before they are lost’ – February 25, 2011 http://www.tampabay.com/news/publicsafety/catching-young-criminals-before-they-are- lost/1153676

The first child up on the afternoon docket is all of 12, with long eyelashes and traces of baby fat. "Nine, 10, 11 …" says Hillsborough Circuit Judge Tracy Sheehan, adding up not his age but the charges against him…On this same day, we woke to find the face of another kid staring out from the front page. Nick Lindsey, 16, is accused of gunning down St. Petersburg police Officer David Crawford during a routine call about a prowler…Lindsey traveled this same juvenile justice system, with some defendants so small they roll up their jail pants so they don't trip as they shuffle along, chained hand and foot. Judge Sheehan has been assigned here only 31/2 weeks, but already she's seen what's frustrated Florida's juvenile judges for decades…

Youth Today (DC) ‘Obama Plan Makes Juvenile Justice Compliance the Basis, Not the Reason, for Federal Funding’ February 25, 2011 (Subscription required) http://www.youthtoday.org/view_article.cfm?article_id=4644

The Justice Department’s first public statement on the juvenile justice plan proposed in President Barack Obama’s 2012 budget suggests that states with a track record on reform would be in pole position for federal funding while other states might not even get to the starting line…

8 News Summary February 18 –March 4, 2011

Associated Press (AP) – Sacramento Bureau (CA) ‘Backlash prompts Brown to alter realignment plan’ – February 28, 2011 Posted on: http://www.mercurynews.com/breaking-news/ci_17504914?nclick_check=1

Gov. Jerry Brown altered his proposal to realign certain state and local government responsibilities Monday after criticism from local law enforcement authorities but still expects substantial savings in the years ahead if the Legislature approves the plan. The state would continue to oversee more dangerous parolees and juvenile offenders rather than having them placed in county jails or monitored by local officials, aides to the Democratic governor said…

Florida Today ‘Family therapy keeps Brevard County teenagers out of jail’ – February 28, 2011 http://www.floridatoday.com/article/20110228/NEWS01/102280311/0/NEWS02/Family-therapy- keeps-Brevard-County-teenagers-out-jail?odyssey=nav%7Chead

Steven Scott did not get along with his stepdad. They had arguments. Scott's mother found herself in the middle often, playing referee. It got worse when the two had a physical altercation. Police were called. Steven, 16, was arrested…As part of his probation, Steven went to Cocoa-based Crosswinds Youth Services to participate in a family therapy program aimed at keeping teens from re-offending and keeping them out of the juvenile justice system…

Florida Today ‘Our views: Keeping teens out of jail’ – March 1, 2011 http://www.floridatoday.com/article/20110301/OPINION/110228021/1006/news01/Our-views- Keeping-teens-out-jail-March-1-?odyssey=nav%7Chead

If you want to create a career criminal, here’s how to do it: Take a troubled teen arrested on a minor charge, toss him or her in a juvenile detention facility with hard-core offenders, then walk away. Come back a few years later when they reach adulthood and you will have reaped what you’ve sown. There is an alternative that produces a much different result…

The Orlando Sentinel (FL) ‘Juvenile Justice Secretary favors therapeutic approach’ – March 1, 2011 http://www.orlandosentinel.com/news/politics/os-rick-scott-juvenile-justice- 20110225,0,1784584.story

The state's new head of juvenile justice wants to duplicate across the state the results she helped bring about in Miami-Dade County, where juvenile arrests were cut in half and re-arrests plummeted…

9 News Summary February 18 –March 4, 2011

Illinois Times ‘When a fifth-grader goes to jail’ – March 3, 2011 http://www.illinoistimes.com/Springfield/article-8398-when-a-fifth-grader-goes-to-jail.html

Fifth-graders are better off learning fractions than serving hard time. With that in mind, Rep. Annazette Collins wants to know why there are fifth-graders in Illinois youth detention centers. Collins, a Chicago Democrat, is chief sponsor to a bill that would keep children as young as 10 out of detention centers altogether. Her proposed legislation, introduced in January, would boost the minimum age of youth in detention centers from 10 to 13…

Tri-City Herald (WA) ‘Delvin's bill addresses juveniles in justice system’ – March 4, 2011 http://www.tri-cityherald.com/2011/03/04/1392795/delvins-bill-addresses-juveniles.html

Youths with developmental disabilities who end up in juvenile detention aren't getting the help they need, said Sharon Paradis, Benton Franklin Juvenile Court administrator. But state Sen. Jerome Delvin introduced a bill that would address the problem…The Senate unanimously passed bill SSB 5097 this week, and it has gone to the House. As proposed, it would see a work group created at the state level to develop recommendations for the Legislature to provide alternatives in the juvenile justice system for dealing with developmentally disabled youths…

Top Stories - Pennsylvania

Pa. judge guilty of racketeering in kickback case Associated Press (AP) – Allentown Bureau By Michael Rubinkam February 18, 2011 Posted on: http://pottsmerc.com/articles/2011/02/18/news/doc4d5ee937a6cd9029458749.txt

SCRANTON (AP) — A former juvenile court judge was convicted Friday of racketeering in a case that accused him of sending youth offenders to for-profit detention centers in exchange for millions of dollars in illicit payments from the builder and owner of the lockups.

Luzerne County ex-Judge Mark Ciavarella, 61, left the bench in disgrace two years ago after prosecutors charged him with engineering one of the biggest courtroom frauds in U.S. history by using juvenile delinquents as pawns in a plot to get rich.

Federal prosecutors accused Ciavarella and a second judge, Michael Conahan, of taking more than $2 million in bribes from the builder of the PA Child Care and Western PA Child Care detention centers and extorting hundreds of thousands of dollars from the facilities' co-owner. Ciavarella insisted the payments were legal and denied that he incarcerated youths for money.

A federal jury in Scranton returned a mixed verdict, convicting Ciavarella of 12 counts, including racketeering and conspiracy, and acquitting him of 27 counts, including extortion. The guilty 10 News Summary February 18 –March 4, 2011 verdicts related to nearly $1 million that the builder paid to the judges.

Ciavarella was expressionless as the verdicts were being read. Prosecutors called him a flight risk and asked that he be held pending sentencing, but he was allowed to remain free. He is likely to get a prison sentence of more than 12 years, according to prosecutors.

Prosecutors alleged Ciavarella and Conahan plotted to shut down the dilapidated county-run juvenile detention center in 2002 and arrange for the construction of the PA Child Care facility outside Wilkes-Barre.

Ciavarella, who presided over juvenile court, sent youths to PA Child Care and later to its sister facility in western Pennsylvania while he was taking payments from Robert Mericle, a prominent builder and close friend of Ciavarella, and Robert Powell, a high-powered attorney who co-owned the youth lockups.

The judge, known for his harsh and autocratic courtroom demeanor, filled the beds of the private lockups with children as young as 10. The Pennsylvania Supreme Court dismissed thousands of juvenile convictions issued by Ciavarella, saying he ran his courtroom with "complete disregard for the constitutional rights of the juveniles," including the right to legal counsel and the right to intelligently enter a plea.

His rough treatment of youths — whom he often had handcuffed and shackled — did not figure into his corruption trial, which focused on the payments from Mericle and Powell. But prosecutor Gordon Zubrod told jurors in his closing argument that Luzerne County's juveniles were indeed victimized by Ciavarella — that he had used them as "pawns in a scheme to enrich himself."

Ciavarella had leverage over Powell because Powell needed the judge to send youths to his heavily mortgaged detention centers, Zubrod said.

Taking the stand in his own defense, the former judge acknowledged to jurors that he failed to report the payments on his tax returns and hid them from the public, but he denied any plot to take kickbacks or extort money.

Ciavarella told jurors that he thought he was legally entitled to Mericle's money, calling it a "finder's fee" for introducing Mericle to Powell. He insisted he took no further steps to make sure that Mericle got the contract to build the detention centers, saying that Mericle was hired by Powell because he was the low bidder.

The former judge pointed to a 2008 conversation — secretly recorded by Powell while he was wearing a wire for the FBI — in which he told Powell and Conahan: "I had nothing to do with it, other than Rob Mericle coming to me and saying, 'I want to do this for you.' He came to me. I didn't go to him. ... Never in my wildest dreams did I ever think that it was illegal."

Ciavarella also denied to the jury that he extorted Powell, who had testified for the prosecution that he was forced to pay the judges nearly $600,000 after they agreed to send juvenile delinquents to his new lockup. The payments were disguised as rent on a Florida condominium owned by the

11 News Summary February 18 –March 4, 2011 judges' wives.

Ciavarella testified that it was Conahan who made the arrangements with Powell. He said Conahan told him that Powell had agreed to pay them $15,000 a month for 60 months to lease the waterfront Florida property. Prosecutors scoffed at that explanation, questioning why Powell — a successful trial lawyer and businessman — would be so foolish as to pay nearly $1 million in rent on a condo he could have purchased outright for less than $800,000.

The defense also said that Ciavarella had no idea that Powell separately was sending cash stuffed in boxes to Conahan. There was "a back-room deal going on between Mike Conahan and Bob Powell, and Mark Ciavarella had no idea what was occurring," defense attorney Al Flora told the jury.

After the verdicts were announced, Ciavarella was ordered to forfeit $997,600 that Mericle had paid him.

Luzerne County paid Powell's company more than $30 million between 2003 and 2007 to house juveniles at PA Child Care and Western PA Child Care. The county could have built its own juvenile center for about $9 million.

Ciavarella and Conahan initially pleaded guilty in February 2009 to honest services fraud and tax evasion in a deal that called for a sentence of 87 months in prison. But their plea deals were rejected by Senior U.S. District Judge Edward M. Kosik, who ruled they had failed to accept responsibility for their actions.

For his convictions, Ciavarella faces a maximum of 157 years in prison — but the range under federal sentencing guidelines is about 12½ years to about 15½ years, prosecutors said.

A federal grand jury in Harrisburg subsequently indicted the judges on charges of racketeering, fraud, money laundering, bribery, extortion and tax offenses. Conahan pleaded guilty to a single racketeering charge last year and awaits sentencing.

Law seeks to correct its wrongs The Times Leader (Wilkes-Barre) By BILL O ’ BOYLE February 19, 2011 http://www.timesleader.com/news/Law_seeks_to_correct_its_wrongs_02-18-2011.html

WILKES-BARRE – State Sen. Lisa Baker said the verdicts in the Mark Ciavarella corruption trial “confirm what our community has painfully learned over two years.”

“Mark Ciavarella committed serious crimes and severely abused the public trust,” Baker said. “The sentence and penalties should reflect the extensiveness of his wrongdoing and the considerable harm he inflicted on kids, families, and the community at large.”

12 News Summary February 18 –March 4, 2011

Baker, R-Lehman Twp., has launched a push for juvenile justice reform by introducing a series of bills to protect the fundamental rights of kids entering the system.

Berks County Senior Judge Arthur Grim, who was appointed by the Pennsylvania Supreme Court in 2009 to review thousands of juvenile cases handled by Ciavarella dating back to 2003, said the verdicts show that the system worked.

“When I heard the news, I immediately started thinking of those transcripts of all those kids who were marched into court and for whom the system did not work,” Grim said. “I recommended to the Supreme Court that those records be expunged. I think the message to the families of those kids is that in this case, the system clearly worked.”

Grim said as a judge, he felt it was extraordinarily important that Ciavarella be held accountable for what he did while he was a judge.

“It’s important for people to know that judges are not above the law,” Grim said.

The Juvenile Law Center complained for years that Ciavarella was overly harsh and deprived youths of their constitutional rights.

The group asked the Supreme Court to step in, citing evidence that juveniles were being sent to detention without benefit of lawyers.

Marsha Levick, deputy director and chief legal counsel at the Juvenile Law Center in Philadelphia, said she was pleased with the guilty verdict, particularly the racketeering, money laundering and tax evasion charges.

Levick said there have been several “silver linings” in the ongoing corruption probe. She said the state Supreme Court’s ruling to expunge the juvenile records was a key and the civil suit filed in the case regarding the violation of the juveniles’ rights continues. She said Ciavarella being found guilty of RICO violations shores up the civil RICO suit.

“Luzerne County District Attorney Jackie Musto Carroll said she was pleased that Ciavarella was brought to justice.

Musto Carroll said many positive changes have come to the juvenile justice system in the aftermath of the scandal and she said more will come.

13 News Summary February 18 –March 4, 2011

Ciavarella had some help perpetrating his crimes The Morning Call (Allentown) By Paul Carpenter February 19, 2011 http://articles.mcall.com/2011-02-19/news/mc-paul-carpenter-ciavarella-20110219_1_juvenile-law- center-ciavarella-and-conahan-judge-mark-ciavarella

Justice, a word that probably is not in former so-called Judge Mark Ciavarella's vocabulary, has finally been served.

Ciavarella was convicted Friday on 12 federal counts involving a scheme in Luzerne County to put thousands of children in commercial juvenile detention facilities in return for millions in payoffs from the operators of the facilities. He beat 27 other raps.

Another former Luzerne County judge, Michael Conahan, pleaded guilty to federal charges in the case last July.

There was no chance that either of these bums would ever face justice in a state court, but I'll get back to that shortly.

Ciavarella went on trial Feb. 7 in Scranton on racketeering, bribery, tax evasion and other charges. At one point, he took the stand in his own defense and admitted tax fraud involving the money he received to keep a commercial juvenile detention center filled with children, who were jailed on the flimsiest of evidence, often without being allowed lawyers or other rights.

He testified, however, that the loot was a legal "finder's fee," not a kickback.

The "kids for cash" scandal involved charges that Ciavarella and Conahan (I call them C&C), raked in $2.8 million.

Conahan has not been sentenced, but his guilty plea to federal racketeering charges means he could get up to 20 years. (Not enough, considering the number of lives he destroyed.) Each of Ciavarella's 12 convictions carries serious penalties, so he could face hundreds of years. (Also not enough.)

The real culprits here are not only C&C, who were given free rein to jail children in return for money because of what I once called an "obscene dereliction of duty" by the Pennsylvania Supreme Court.

As early as 2005, the Supremes, responsible for the integrity of all courts in the state, were informed that something very bad was happening in Luzerne County. The Philadelphia-based Juvenile Law Center notified the high court that juveniles in Luzerne County were being jailed after they were denied the right to counsel.

14 News Summary February 18 –March 4, 2011

That began after Conahan ruled that juveniles could no longer be placed in county detention, but must instead be put in the commercial facilities (co-owned by the son of a former Supreme Court justice).

Even though the Juvenile Law Center fully documented thousands of cases in which children's rights were violated, and gave that evidence to the Supremes, they repeatedly refused to intervene. In fact, they refused to take any action whatsoever until forced to do so by federal authorities in January 2009. The latest refusal, authored by Chief Justice Ron Castille, came just a couple of weeks before the feds fell on C&C. Castille simply ruled, without explanation, that the Juvenile Law Center's requests for intervention "are denied."

Three days after the feds filed charges against C&C, Castille et al did an about-face and approved a Juvenile Law Center request, appointing a master to investigate. That resulted in the Supremes being forced to vacate thousands of previous Ciavarella rulings in Luzerne County juvenile cases.

"The stench of this court [meaning the state Supreme Court] is overpowering," I observed last year, referring not only to the Luzerne County mess but to other brazenly illegal actions by the Supremes.

The juvenile jailings were not the only thing in Luzerne County that the Supremes were forced to go back and do right.

Last year they had to reverse a lower state appellate court ruling in the case of a Lehigh County man who was trying to get justice in a battle with Ciavarella.

In 2005, Emil Malinowski of Emmaus went to court in Luzerne County after a bank reneged on a deed requirement. Ciavarella ruled in favor of the bank, without mentioning that he and Conahan had longstanding ties to it. That bank's chairman was gambling figure Louis DeNaples, until federal officials removed him from that post in 2009 because of a perjury case. The lower court upheld Ciavarella, but the Supremes, perhaps out of sheer embarrassment, sided with Malinowski.

There also was some poetic justice in the outcomes of the C&C cases.

In February 2009, Ciavarella and Conahan copped pleas that would put them behind bars a little over seven years. Then they refused to accept full responsibility for what they'd done to the children, so a federal judge threw out the plea deal. Now these bums are looking at the possibility of a lot more than seven years in prison.

It's a shame that a few other so-called judges cannot be required to keep them company in there.

Paul Carpenter's commentary appears Sundays, Wednesdays and Fridays.

15 News Summary February 18 –March 4, 2011

Lawyers: Ruling aids civil suits Actions are on behalf of juveniles incarcerated by former Judge Ciavarella. The Times Leader (Wilkes-Barre) By Terrie Morgan-Besecker February 20, 2011 http://www.timesleader.com/news/Lawyers__Ruling_aids_civil_suits_02-20-2011.html

Two attorneys representing juveniles in the “kids for cash” civil lawsuits said Friday’s verdict in former Judge Mark Ciavarella’s criminal trial won’t negatively impact the suits and may actually help bolster the claims.

Barry Dyller of Wilkes-Barre and Marsha Levick of the Juvenile Law Center said the fact Ciavarella was acquitted of some of the charges against him will have little impact because the counts that he was convicted of are directly related to claims in the suit.

A federal jury convicted Ciavarella of racketeering and money laundering charges related to his acceptance of a nearly $1 million from real estate developer Robert Mericle in relation to the construction of the PA Child Care center, but acquitted him of all charges relating to the alleged extortion of Robert Powell, who co-owned the center, and his acceptance of money related to the Western PA Child Care center.

Levick said that makes no difference in the civil suits because the plaintiffs have always alleged Powell was a willing participant, not a victim in the scheme prosecutors say was orchestrated by Ciavarella and former Judge Michael Conahan.

“We thought he was a joint conspirator with Ciavarella, Conahan, Powell and Mericle, all of who shared responsibility. Extortion was not a claim we made,” Levick said.

Dyller said he believes the fact Ciavarella was acquitted of the extortion charges helps the plaintiffs because it shows both he and Powell lacked credibility. The panel’s verdict relating to the Mericle money showed they also found Mericle not to be credible.

“It’s very important that the defendants in the class action suit were found by juries to lack credibility,” Dyller said. “We had our own assessment that they were not credible. We now know a jury pool felt the same way.”

Levick and Dyller are among numerous attorneys who represent juveniles in several separate class action lawsuits that were filed following the initial arrest of Ciavarella and Conahan on corruption charges in January 2009.

The suits differ in allegations, but all are based on the same premise that Ciavarella improperly incarcerated juveniles in order to ensure Powell’s juvenile centers maintained high occupancy rates. All of the lawsuits have been consolidated for pre-trial evidence gathering. They remain pending in federal court.

16 News Summary February 18 –March 4, 2011

Mericle, Powell, Ciavarella and Conahan are among numerous defendants who remain in the suits. Ciavarella and Conahan have been granted immunity for actions they took in their capacity as judges, but they remain liable for actions they took in either administrative or personal capacities, Dyller said.

Out of scandal, a new system New juvenile unit within the Public Defenders Office seeks to become state model. The Times Leader (Wilkes-Barre) By Terrie Morgan-Besecker February 21, 2011 http://www.timesleader.com/news/Out_of_scandal__a_new_system_02-20-2011.html

WILKES-BARRE – Marred by scandal, Luzerne County’s juvenile justice system has begun to emerge from the rubble with the goal of some day becoming a model for the state.

For the past two years, the juvenile court system has operated under a state a turmoil as officials worked to figure out how to right the wrongs that were committed under former juvenile Judge Mark Ciavarella’s 12-year tenure.

Ironically, the man who defended Ciavarella at his corruption trial – attorney Al Flora – has become one of the chief architects of a comprehensive plan that’s been put in place to address shortcomings within the system.

Ciavarella was convicted Friday by a federal jury of racketeering and other charges in connection with his acceptance of nearly $1 million from real estate developer Robert Mericle related to the construction of the PA Child Care juvenile center. Prosecutors alleged Ciavarella and former Judge Michael Conahan took the money as a reward for issuing judicial rulings that paved the way for the center.

But the problems with the county’s juvenile system went far beyond the corruption scandal, particularly in terms of the legal representation – or lack thereof – that juveniles were provided, Flora said.

Ciavarella has been roundly criticized for his practice of allowing juveniles to appear before him without an attorney. State statistics showed more than 50 percent of juveniles were unrepresented. That fact was a key issue in the state Supreme Court’s decision in October 2009 to vacate the convictions of thousands of juveniles who appeared before him.

Flora, the county’s chief public defender, has taken significant steps to address that and other issues. First, he established a policy that all juveniles are provided representation, regardless of the income of their parents.

Equally important, Flora, with the blessing of county commissioners, created a new juvenile unit within the office that he says has revolutionized the way juvenile delinquency cases are handled.

17 News Summary February 18 –March 4, 2011

Staffed by three full-time attorneys, a social worker, legal secretary and investigator, the unit is dedicated solely to representing juveniles. It employs a comprehensive team approach to determine the best course of action to deal with the issues that led the child to commit a crime.

“A large portion of juvenile law is trying to figure out what to do with the child. That involves psychological and social assesses, dealing with family issues, understanding school records,” Flora said.

Having three full-time attorneys dedicated solely to juvenile cases has ensured each case receives the attention that is required, Flora said. Before the unit was established there was only one attorney – Cheryl Sobeski-Reedy -- handling juvenile cases. The new additions have ensured that no attorney handles more than 200 cases a year, whereas Sobeski-Reedy was on path to handle more than 500 cases had the unit not been established, Flora said.

The extra help also ensures an attorney is present for every step of the process, including the intake hearing with probation officials at which the decision is made whether to take the case to court or handle it informally. Previously, the Public Defenders Office did not get involved until after the case was transferred to court.

Flora said the full-time social worker has also been a crucial addition to the department because she helps to provide a full picture of the psychological and social factors that are playing a role in the child’s behavior.

“She’s there at the homes to see the family dynamics,” Flora said. “She doesn’t just make a 10- minute stop. She’s there for hours sometimes. That gives a true sense of what the family is like, so that when we go to court we can give the judge a good picture.”

The establishment of the unit is one of several initiatives county officials have taken to revamp the juvenile justice process.

District Attorney Jacqueline Musto Carroll recently created the Youth Aid Panel program. Juveniles who are first-time, non-violent offenders have the chance to appear before the panel, which is made up of community volunteers. The panel will recommend a program. If the juvenile completes it, he or she will not have to go through the court system.

Flora said everyone within the juvenile justice system is committed to keeping as many juveniles out of the court system as possible. For those who do go to court, the Public Defenders Office, in conjunction with Juvenile Probation, strives to find outpatient programs to deal with the child’s issues. Placement at an outside facility is a last resort.

It’s a far cry from the philosophy employed by Ciavarella, who ordered an average of 200 or more juveniles per year to be sent to an out-of-home placement.

Flora acknowledged the sense of irony that he is one of the people behind the changes. He said he doesn’t want to focus on the errors of the past. He’s dedicated now to creating a program that could be used as a model by other counties.

18 News Summary February 18 –March 4, 2011

He’s continuing efforts to beef up the unit. He recently applied for several grants, including $250,000 from Luzerne County Mental Health Mental Retardation that would allow him to hire an attorney cross-trained in juvenile and educational law.

“The commissioners vested me with this responsibility, and I’m going to do what’s right,” Flora said. “I wanted to create something that was new and had never been done before.”

Efforts underway to repair Luzerne County juvenile court system Ex-judge's 'justice' changed Citizens’ Voice (Wilkes-Barre) By Andrew Staub February 21, 2011 http://thetimes-tribune.com/news/efforts-underway-to-repair-luzerne-county-juvenile-court-system- 1.1108188#axzz1Ej2kyN9K

WILKES-BARRE - In a matter of minutes, a boy with buzzed hair shed his military fatigues and heavy-duty boots and traded them for a coat, sweatpants and sneakers he pulled from a clear plastic trash bag.

The clothes appeared to be remnants of the boy's life before he went through Luzerne County Juvenile Court and before he completed his four-month stint at the Northwestern Academy, a boot camp and treatment facility for juveniles in Shamokin.

The boy had just stood before Luzerne County Judge David Lupas, who commended him for the progress he made at the camp and took special interest in the boy's two spelling bee titles before he ruled the boy could return home.

"What was the hardest word you had to spell?" the judge asked during the Monday morning hearing.

"Rendezvous," the boy replied, ticking off the letters as if his crown was on the line once more.

"Nobody knows here if you're right," Judge Lupas said, drawing laughs from those in the juvenile courtroom in the Penn Place building.

This isn't the story people usually tell about Luzerne County's juvenile court. Usually, they talk about the man who previously sat in Judge Lupas' chair, Mark A. Ciavarella Jr. The former judge earned a reputation for zealously imparting his brand of zero-tolerance justice, banishing kids who often lacked legal representation to detention centers at an alarming rate and often for minor offenses.

Last week, Mr. Ciavarella's tenure as judge fell under the national microscope as a jury convicted him of racketeering and conspiracy for his role in the so-called kids-for-cash scandal. Though federal prosecutors largely ignored allegations in a grand jury indictment that Mr. Ciavarella used 19 News Summary February 18 –March 4, 2011 his courtroom to stock two juvenile centers in exchange for kickbacks, his treatment of juveniles has prompted hundreds of former defendants to file civil lawsuits.

As the national spotlight again shone last week on corruption-ravaged Luzerne County for the wrong reasons, state lawmakers and those in the legal community say they've worked to remove the stain left behind from the scandal and to change the story of juvenile court here.

On the day a jury began to deliberate Mr. Ciavarella's fate, state Sen. Lisa Baker, R-20, Lehman Twp., detailed her plan to introduce a bundle of bills that would substantially alter the state's juvenile justice system if passed into law.

Ms. Baker's legislation would prohibit the waiver of counsel in juvenile delinquency hearings, ban the shackling and handcuffing of juvenile defendants and expedite appeals of delinquency proceedings. She also wants to create a position for a victim advocate devoted to juvenile justice and require judges to explain on the record their reasoning behind their rulings.

Ms. Baker's suggestions cover several recommendations set forth in a state panel's report issued in May by the Interbranch Commission on Juvenile Justice.

Key juvenile court reforms Scranton Times-Tribune February 21, 2011 http://thetimes-tribune.com/news/key-juvenile-court-reforms-1.1108187#axzz1Ej2kyN9K

- State Sen. Lisa Baker, R-20, Lehman Twp., will introduce a bundle of bills that would prohibit the waiver of counsel in juvenile delinquency hearings, expedite appeals and require judges to explain on the record the reasoning behind the dispositions they enter.

- The Juvenile Court Procedural Rules Committee has also submitted suggestions for several rule changes to the state Supreme Court. A key change would require an automatic presumption juveniles should be appointed counsel. The committee suggested eliminating shackling in juvenile court, except in extreme cases. Ms. Baker has also pushed to eliminate shackling.

- The Luzerne County public defender's office has created a "model" juvenile unit. It includes three attorneys, a social worker, an investigator and an administrative assistant to work exclusively on juvenile cases. The unit aims for rehabilitative, not punitive, sentences. The office also now represents all juveniles who request assistance.

- The Luzerne County district attorney's office reviews all allegations against juveniles before forwarding them to court, a job that fell before to probation officials. The office also devotes two full-time assistant district attorneys to juveniles cases. The formation of youth aid panels mean low- level offenders can appear before community volunteers, not a judge. The sentences would often include community service, not detention

20 News Summary February 18 –March 4, 2011

OPINION: Systemic ills of court system must be tackled The Times Leader (Wilkes-Barre) By MARK GUYDISH February 22, 2011 http://www.timesleader.com/opinion/columnists/guydish/Systemic_ills__of_court_system__must_b e_tackled_MARK_GUYDISH_OPINION_02-21-2011.html

The e-mail subject line was “best quote,” and while it’s too early to declare a winner, this has to be among the nominees.

The writer, who asked for anonymity, recounted a conversation shortly after the verdict in former Luzerne County Judge Mark Ciavarella’s trial. One person suggested some fresh air might finally get into the county courthouse, to which a friend quipped:

“It is less fresh air through the courthouse and more that someone cracked a window after passing gas.”

Another writer who had, through work, witnessed juvenile hearings both here and in other counties, offered this:

“The differences were shocking -- especially the speed of these hearings. People take longer to make their dinner selection than the time spent deciding an adolescent’s fate.”

The belief here is that those days are over, thanks to the work of attorney Al Flora since becoming chief public defender. Yes, Flora also served as Ciavarella’s lead defense attorney, and was overzealous in declaring Ciavarella’s conviction on racketeering and money laundering charges a victory.

But he also put in place the Juvenile Unit within the Public Defender’s Office, and implemented a policy assuring all kids can have an attorney in court, regardless of income.

The unit dedicates three attorneys, a social worker, investigator and legal secretary to juvenile cases. It’s a huge change from the days when many deemed juvenile justice “kiddie court,” and attorneys often met the children they represented just minutes before the child met the judge.

How well the unit really works, and whether the county keeps funding it, remains to be seen.

It’s a promising start; but it’s only a start.

After judge’s trial, a call for action

An e-mail from a person very familiar with our county court system pegged Ciavarella this way: “He is so infected by ego and self-centeredness that he is literally unable to understand how horrific his ethical violations were and their impact on our community.” The writer went on to critique a system that let it all happen:

21 News Summary February 18 –March 4, 2011

“It makes me sick that the law can permit such ethical lapses to go unpunished. How can any judge be permitted to make millions due to a position the public put him in, not disclose to litigants in his courtroom the nature of these relationships and not face serious criminal penalties for ‘moral wrongs?’ This needs to be addressed.”

It certainly does. The crime exposed in the Ciavarella trial is that so little of what he did was a crime.

That his attorneys could legitimately argue filing false financial interest statements didn’t break the law is absurd.

That he isn’t guilty of a crime after admitting under oath he failed to reveal conflicts of interest when business partners appeared before him in court is bizarre (it was an incidental aspect of his trial).

That he could also admit under oath – almost as an aside -- he used campaign donations for personal expenses like family meals and not be subject to immediate penalties is surreal.

That he could, even for a second, argue it was “legal money” when he took millions from the builder of a juvenile facility where he sent kids is nothing short of obscene.

A window was cracked open, and while the stench may come from the courtrooms of Ciavarella and his cohort Michael Conahan, we now know there are flaws in the system itself. State legislators need to step in and fix this.

And we need to push them until they do.

Letters: Try him as adult Pittsburgh Post-Gazette February 22, 2011 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/11053/1126994-110.stm

Regarding the editorial "Child's Story: Superior Court Must End Wonderland Justice" (Jan. 31): I believe that Jordan Brown should be treated like any other person charged with killing another.

He is charged with killing his father's fiancée and unborn child and shows no remorse.

At age 11, a person should know killing someone is against the law. This is a serious crime that needs justice. This young man should be tried as an adult. I do not think rehabilitation is an option for a crime this serious. Too many people have sympathy for him because of his age, but I do not think age should be a factor.

If he is tried as a juvenile and convicted and does his time until he is 21, then he will just come out of the system as a disturbed man. He will miss out on growing in a normal environment and not know how to act once he is released. 22 News Summary February 18 –March 4, 2011

As a college student, I would be treated like anyone else. I am still learning and not fully matured, but I know what's right and what's wrong. I hope the Superior Court agrees with me so justice can be served. SCOTT SMITH Cecil

…

We've failed Jordan

Jordan Brown was an 11-year-old boy when he allegedly shot and killed his soon-to-be stepmother. Because he was only 11, Jordan never had a driver's license, never took a legal drink, couldn't be held liable for any contract, could not be drafted into military service and couldn't have a job.

Jordan still can't do any of the other things that appear in that list. Why not? The law says he's a child. He'll continue to be a child long after the court stated that he can't be tried as one. "Amen," say many. "Oh God," says me.

You see, the slope is slippery and when the gavel hit the pad, the slope became so much steeper than the laws ever intended. The reason Jordan cannot rent a car is because the men who pass laws and the courts in charge of interpreting them have repeated many times that he cannot be responsible or entrusted to do so. But now, when we are in need of a judge who'll be strong in the face of criticism, what we have is a coward.

Public sentiment says crucify Jordan even if the law is in place and has been in place to protect our children from themselves. Sure the pressure is great. But pressure should not interpret the law. A court should.

We have failed Jordan. Now we can crucify him with a clear conscience. We didn't give Jordan a chance, and we are all worse for it.

PAUL STAUB Dormont

Holly Herman: Fix Abraxas Academy ills The Reading Eagle February 24, 2011 http://readingeagle.com/article.aspx?id=289813

The conviction last Friday of former Luzerne County Judge Mark A. Ciavarella Jr. in the "cash for kids" scheme made national news.

Ciavarella was convicted of receiving $1 million from the builder of a detention center. Berks County Senior Judge Arthur E. Grim presided over the cases of kids whom Ciavarella sentenced to 23 News Summary February 18 –March 4, 2011 the facility.

While Ciavarella's trial was going on in Scranton, the Reading Eagle was reporting on cases of juveniles in a Nov. 15 riot in Abraxas Academy, New Morgan.

It was the second riot within five months at the privately run facility that houses up to 82 violent offenders.

A total of nine juveniles were arrested in riots June 12 and Nov. 15. Six have been adjudicated. One case is pending in juvenile court. Two are in adult court.

The first riot was reported in the media. Eight counselors suffered injuries. The second riot, however, was kept quiet.

The media didn't find out about it until Feb. 9, when the case of a 17-year-old charged in the riot was in juvenile court.

In the second riot, a counselor was stabbed, several residents sustained broken noses and a desk was thrown out a window.

Abraxas has a history of problems. In 2002 the facility closed because of reports of sexual assaults, mostly involving counselors abusing residents.

The facility reopened in 2006, and since then the state Department of Welfare has suspended its license three times for lack of supervision.

After the June riot, the Pennsylvania Office of Open Records denied a Reading Eagle request for copies of complaints the state Department of Public Welfare received about the facility.

The agency said complaints about juveniles and employees are not public records.

Berks County does not send juveniles to Abraxas. Juvenile authorities said serious offenders are sent to five other secure facilities.

Grim said that Glen Mills, a private facility in Delaware County, provides an excellent approach to dealing with hard-core offenders.

It assigns veteran offenders in the facility to serve as mentors to new offenders.

Maybe Abraxas should look to Glen Mills for ideas.

Covering up problems is not the solution to ending them.

24 News Summary February 18 –March 4, 2011

Blair courts ahead of state County officials say courts work to protect rights The Altoona Mirror By Phil Ray February 27, 2011 http://www.altoonamirror.com/page/content.detail/id/547657/Blair-courts-ahead-of-state.html? nav=742

HOLLIDAYSBURG - A 16-year-old Blair County boy was in Juvenile Court before Blair County President Judge Jolene G. Kopriva last week stating that he wanted to leave detention and live with his grandfather.

That wasn't in the cards, the judge explained.

His problem is that he continually runs away from home, even from a foster home in which he was placed, Kopriva said.

So while the boy's attorney explained the boy "doesn't like to be cooped up," Kopriva said that the court wanted to get to the bottom of why the boy continued to run and get into trouble.

"Your behavior reflects your problem. ... Your thinking is not good," Kopriva replied to the boy's request to rejoin his family.

The grandfather told the judge, "I want to see he gets the best care."

As the hearing concluded, Kopriva outlined her reasons for sending the boy to Greystone House in Somerset County, a facility operated by Adelphoi Village of Latrobe.

"It's more complex than saying 'just go home,'" she said. "You are too young to be running around. When you are out running around, nothing good happens. Who are you seeing? What are you doing?"

At Greystone, the boy will undergo anger management and a mental health evaluation, abide by rules, receive his education and work on a plan to return home.

The Interbranch Commission on Juvenile Justice reported in May that many people in Pennsylvania do not understand the juvenile system. The commission was appointed by Gov. Ed Rendell to investigate the state's juvenile justice system after the arrest of two corrupt judges in Luzerne County.

It is understandable because the handling of juveniles who commit crimes is, for the most part, behind closed doors. For instance, the public is not permitted into juvenile court proceedings.

But that same closed system, supposedly to protect juveniles, allowed Luzerne County Judges Mark A. Ciavarella Jr. and Michael T. Conahan to operate a "Kids for Cash" scheme in which they

25 News Summary February 18 –March 4, 2011 allegedly received kickbacks for removing thousands of juveniles from their homes and placing them in juvenile detention facilities in Butler and Luzerne counties.

Conahan entered a guilty plea to federal racketeering charges while Ciavarella was convicted by a federal jury last week of racketeering and 11 other charges. He was found not guilty on 27 other offenses.

The judges were not only removed from office but now face years behind bars.

In the wake of the scheme, legislators, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court and local officials are trying to reform the system so that such corruption never happens again.

Sen. Lisa Baker, R-Luzerne, said she will introduce proposed reforms that will protect juveniles' rights while also bringing attention to the needs of victims and the community damaged by teenagers' criminal actions.

Most of the proposed reforms are already in place in Blair County, local juvenile officials said.

Protection of a juvenile's rights - such as representation by an attorney - have been implemented during the past few years and have now become staples of the system, Nancy Williams, director of the Blair County Juvenile Probation Office, and John Dively, her deputy director, said.

The investigation into the operation of the Luzerne County Juvenile Court, particularly by Ciavarella, indicated that 54 percent of the teens who appeared before him did not have attorneys.

His hearings, unlike the hearing conducted by Kopriva a week ago, lasted only a few minutes, and the juveniles were ordered removed from their homes for the slightest offense, including minor crimes such as disorderly conduct.

Ciavarella offered no explanation except to tell the juveniles that he had visited their schools and warned them what would happen if they got into trouble.

The judges' scheme "shook the confidence of the community," Baker said.

"It will take years to recover," she said.

As for Ciavarella, she said, "He sold out justice. He sold out the community. He sold out the kids. He sold out his soul."

Baker is now circulating proposed bills among her colleagues, looking for co-sponsors. Those bills would:

• Eliminate waiving counsel in juvenile delinquency hearings. • Create a statewide victim advocate for the juvenile system, a move that would help bring compensation to victims. • Require judges to state their reasons for their sentences. 26 News Summary February 18 –March 4, 2011

• Institute an expedited appeal process in juvenile cases. • Prohibit shackling of juveniles in the courtroom • Juveniles are considered indigent in Blair County because they have no income despite what their parents may earn, Dively said. This allows the court to appoint an attorney for them if they do not have one.

If the juvenile and his parents want to waive representation by an attorney, the judge asks them questions to make sure the teens and the parents are acting voluntarily and not under pressure.

The Blair County system for years has had a juvenile victim's advocate. Betty Loucks presently holds the position.

Blair's judges who preside over juvenile court state their reasons for their sentences.

Williams pointed to Kopriva's lengthy opinion issued in the recent case in which Jeremiah Moser, a 16-year-old Altoona Area High School student charged with stabbing a classmate, was decertified as an adult and placed in the juvenile system.

The judge explained Moser would have a better chance of treatment in the juvenile system. Blair County also avoids shackling a juvenile suspect in the courtroom, although sometimes that becomes necessary, Dively said.

A juvenile last year became violent in the courtroom, injuring a sheriff's deputy. A juvenile's probation officer works with the sheriff to decide if a teen in court should be shackled, he said.

As for appellate review of juvenile cases, the state Supreme Court will have to issue rules on that subject, Williams and Dively said. Blair County has experienced very few appeals to a higher court stemming from the juvenile justice system.

The one question that both Baker and local officials can't answer about what occurred in Luzerne County is why everybody ignored the ethics violations and lack of legal procedure exhibited in the handling of juvenile cases by Ciavarella.

What was happening in Luzerne County brought no reaction from the county's district attorney, public defender, probation officers, police or lawyers who watched the proceedings and even the state Supreme Court, which was informed something wasn't right, the governor's juvenile justice panel's report stated.

That's why the confidence of the community has been shaken, Baker said.

The commission tried to answer the question.

"[The commission] heard repeated testimony in which witnesses described a climate of fear and intimidation, reprisal and retribution in the Luzerne County Courthouse during time when Michael Conahan and Mark Ciavarella were the president judges," the report stated. 27 News Summary February 18 –March 4, 2011

"It is clear that this atmosphere fostered the breakdown of the juvenile justice system. Both men were autocratic. They did not rule by consensus. They did not take kindly to opposition."

Altoona defense lawyer Joel Peppetti, one of the attorneys representing Moser, said Blair County is different from many other counties in which he has practiced.

In other counties, pretrial motions to quash confessions, requests for discovery or hearings, are often ignored, with juvenile officials taking the position that they have already decided what to do with the young defendant.

As a defense lawyer, Peppetti said his job is to protect the juvenile's rights to confront witnesses, to review the evidence against them and to challenge confessions.

"In Blair County, you are given the opportunity to litigate those motions," Peppetti said. "In other counties, you file those motions, and they say, 'This is what we are going to do.'"

Peppetti said he attended a three-hour seminar on what went wrong in Luzerne County, and he said the system there was pretty much "this is what we are going to do."

The juvenile system focuses on getting help for the juvenile, but, Peppetti said, "We have to be careful we don't sacrifice their constitutional rights."

Assistant Public Defender Mike Emerick, who provides the defense for hundreds of Blair County juveniles annually, agreed with Peppetti that Blair County's juvenile system strives to protect the constitutional rights of young offenders.

He noted that many juveniles in Luzerne County did not have lawyers. That isn't the case in Blair.

"In Blair County, there are few juveniles who go through the system unrepresented," he said.

The county's juvenile office is very good in providing him with confessions, statements and other pieces of evidence against his clients, Emerick said.

A majority of cases in Blair are resolved through master's hearings - where a court-appointed attorney presides - which means the cases are reviewed and the juveniles are placed on probation without going before a judge.

Emerick supports proposed reform of the juvenile system statewide, noting, "We've got to take measures to make sure that [Luzerne County doesn't happen again]."

28 News Summary February 18 –March 4, 2011

Opinion: Go beyond scandal to promote change The Times Leader (Wilkes-Barre) February 27, 2011 http://www.timesleader.com/opinion/Go_beyond_scandal_to_promote_change_02-27-2011.html

RATHER THAN TRY and re-try former Luzerne County judge Mark A. Ciavarella Jr. in the court of public opinion, or try to psychoanalyze the youths (and parents of youths) who appeared years ago in his juvenile court, why don’t we try something else?

Why don’t we try to fix the obvious flaws exposed by Ciavarella’s recent public corruption trial and the “kids-for-cash” scandal?

Specifically, we – the news media, bloggers, commentators and, most important, area residents such as you – can take actions to correct faults in the juvenile court system. Likewise, we can commit to making the Greater Wyoming Valley a better, more caring place in which to grow up and avoid trouble.

Get involved in one or more of these worthwhile efforts – solutions that require many voices and much energy, and that can yield results.

Support area youth programs.

Volunteer with or otherwise contribute to one of the area’s youth-oriented organizations. Among the many options: Big Brothers Big Sisters of the Bridge ( www.bbbsnepa.org), Boys & Girls Clubs of Northeastern Pennsylvania ( www.bgcnepa.org), the Children’s Service Center ( www.cscwv.org) and the Family Service Association of the Wyoming Valley ( www.fsawv.org).

Serve on a youth aid panel.

Participants on these five to eight-person panels will dispense appropriate remedies and penalties for first-time, nonviolent juvenile offenders. Youths who successfully complete the program will not be tagged with criminal records. For information, call Bob Stevens at (570) 825-1674 or send e- mail to [email protected].

Champion changes.

The ad hoc Interbranch Commission on Juvenile Justice and the Philadelphia-based Juvenile Law Center reviewed this scandal and offered dozens of recommendations on topics ranging from legal representation for youths to the use of shackles.

The law center created an eight-part series of podcasts that it began releasing last month. Follow the series at www.jlc.org/podcast . The commission’s final report, issued in May 2010, is accessible at this web address: www.aopc.org/Links/Public/InterbranchCommissionJuvenileJustice.htm .

Lobby for reform.

29 News Summary February 18 –March 4, 2011

Contact state Sen. Lisa Baker’s office for updates on the status of her proposed legislation related to the scandal. Call (717) 787-7428 or (570) 675-3931. Track the bills and contact legislative committee members at the appropriate times to voice your support.

Encourage ethics.

An initiative to spur community forums and discussions about ethics appears to have fizzled. It seems this sort of talk is sorely needed in Northeastern Pennsylvania. Can someone revive this project? For details, visit www.ethicsawarenessluzerne.com.

Report public corruption.

If you have credible information about suspected public corruption in Northeastern Pennsylvania, call this tip line established by the U.S. Attorney’s Office, Middle District of Pennsylvania: 1-866- 996-4320.

There isn’t much to gain from retracing well-trod ground. Let’s leave a legacy of reform and community betterment rather than allow this incident to fade with nothing to show for it.

COMMENTARY: Real juvenile justice reform needed for area to recover The Times Leader (Wilkes-Barre) By John Yudichak March 1, 2011 http://www.timesleader.com/opinion/commentary/Real_juvenile_justice_reform_needed_for_area_t o_recover_COMMENTARY_John_Yudichak_02-28-2011.html

WHEN A former Luzerne County judge recently was found guilty of racketeering and other offenses in connection with the incarceration of children at a Luzerne County juvenile detention center, the guilty verdict was only the first step toward healing families stung by this scandal and moving our community forward.

The rage and grief of the families reverberated throughout our community and around the world.

As a father, I share and understand the anger of the families that were victimized. Like those families that lost so much, we, as legislators, have to fight against the status quo and work to reform our judicial system and strengthen our public corruption laws. We have to restore confidence in the rule of law and rebuild the integrity of our governmental institutions.

I am proud to join many of my colleagues in the state Senate who have crossed political and geographic boundaries to unite behind sensible reform measures that strike at the heart of the public corruption scandals that have rocked Pennsylvania in recent years.

Joining forces with state Sen. Lisa Baker, R-Lehman Township, we are sponsoring a package of juvenile justice reform bills.

30 News Summary February 18 –March 4, 2011

Sen. Baker, from day one, has been out front in the fight to protect children ensnared in Luzerne County’s juvenile justice scandal. Our legislation would prohibit the waiver of counsel in juvenile delinquency hearings and prohibit the use of handcuffs and shackles on the young in juvenile court.

Another bill would create a statewide office of Juvenile Justice Victim Advocate in the Office of the Victim Advocate. These reforms are borne out of the recommendations made by the Interbranch Commission on Juvenile Justice and the Juvenile Law Center.

I also am introducing legislation with state Sen. Edwin Erickson, R-Delaware County, to create a Public Integrity Commission. This commission would be charged with uncovering and investigating public corruption at all levels and in all branches of government.

The commission also would have the ability to work cooperatively with Pennsylvania’s attorney general and refer investigations to appropriate law enforcement officials for prosecution. In addition, the legislation would give the commission subpoena power and the authority to seek immunity orders to obtain testimony necessary in public corruption investigations.

A new, empowered agency would help to root out and prevent public corruption. The new Public Integrity Commission would absorb the existing functions and duties of the State Ethics Commission related to statements of financial interest and conflicts of interest.

It is tragic that the actions of corrupt public officials have torn at the very fabric of our community. We cannot, however, yield to cynicism and despair.

We must work together to heal the wounds from these corruption scandals; we must strive to build a new era in government marked by an unwavering commitment to transparency and accountability at all levels of public life.

John Yudichak, of Plymouth Township, is the Democratic state senator for the 14th District. For information, visit www.senatoryudichak.com .

Area reps laud high court’s juvie justice reforms Court’s work helpful, say lawmakers, who push quest for change with legislation. The Times Leader (Wilkes-Barre) By MATT HUGHES March 2, 2011 http://www.timesleader.com/news/Area_reps_laud_high_court_rsquo_s_juvie_justice_reforms_03- 02-2011.html

HARRISBURG – Luzerne County’s representatives in the state Legislature voiced support Tuesday of the state Supreme Court’s implementation of reforms to the juvenile justice system.

31 News Summary February 18 –March 4, 2011

The high court on Tuesday issued an update to statewide changes already in place or under consideration to address issues within the juvenile justice system that were revealed by the corruption scandal in Luzerne County.

State Sen. Lisa Baker, R-Lehman Township, said the update “adds to the work of the Interbranch Commission on Juvenile Justice and the work of the Juvenile Law Center.”

“It is particularly significant that it follows on the heels of the Ciavarella trial,” she continued. “It is crucial for the court to make a statement, and it is very helpful in our push for our legislative agenda.”

Baker and Sen. John Yudichak, D-Plymouth Township, have said they will sponsor a package of juvenile justice reform bills.

Yudichak called the Supreme Court’s actions “the first step toward healing this community and repairing a deeply fractured justice system.”

Representatives in the state House also chimed in to support the high court’s actions.

“We must ensure that the abuse of power that occurred in Luzerne County is never repeated,” said state Rep. Phyllis Mundy, D-Kingston. “That’s why my colleagues and I are continuing to work on legislation to improve the juvenile justice system across the state.”

Mundy, along with reps. Eddie Day Pashinski, Mike Carroll, Gerald Mullery and Sid Michaels Kavulich, said the General Assembly should enact strong reforms and build upon the improvements made to the juvenile justice system last year.

Carroll, D-Avoca, called the court’s actions “important first steps,” but added that “there is more work to be done. I support proposed legislation to continue the reform process in all three branches of state government. We owe it to our residents.”

Mundy and Pashinski, D-Wilkes-Barre, have reintroduced legislation expanding the duties of the Juvenile Court Judges Commission and requiring the state to reimburse counties half the cost of legal counsel for juvenile court hearings.

Mullery, D-Newport Township, and Kavulich, D-Taylor, reiterated the importance of fixing the juvenile justice system.

“As an attorney, I have witnessed the public’s shattered faith in our judicial system,” Mullery said.

“Many of our children have paid an unfairly high price due to the actions of these rogue judges who abused their power and corrupted the system. We cannot allow what happened in Luzerne County to happen again anywhere in Pennsylvania.”

32 News Summary February 18 –March 4, 2011

Pa. juvie justice promise is made High court issues update on changes made, considered in wake of county scandal. The Times Leader (Wilkes-Barre) By Terrie Morgan-Besecker March 2, 2011 http://www.timesleader.com/news/Pa__juvie_justice_promise_is_made_03-02-2011.html

HARRISBURG – The state Supreme Court on Tuesday issued an update to statewide changes that have been made or are currently being contemplated to address issues within the juvenile justice system that were revealed by the corruption scandal in Luzerne County.

During the past nine months, various committees with the Supreme Court have been working on altering various rules governing the administration of juvenile justice.

The changes are in response to a report issued in May by the Interbranch Commission on Juvenile Justice, the panel that was formed to investigate shortcomings in the county’s juvenile system after the arrest of former judges Mark Ciavarella and Michael Conahan.

Chief Justice Ronald D. Castille said he issued the update to assure the public the Interbranch Commission’s report has not been left “simply (to) gather dust on a shelf.”

“The judiciary is committed to improving the juvenile justice system so that the problems that were highlighted by the tragedy in Luzerne County are never repeated there or in any other county,” Castille said in the report.

Among the most significant proposed changes is a requirement that all juvenile court judges state on the record his or her reason for ordering a particular treatment and/or placement.

The new rule would also require a judge to choose the least restrictive placement based on consideration of the juvenile’s needs and public safety.

Ciavarella, who was convicted Feb. 18 of racketeering and other charges, frequently incarcerated youths for minor offenses. He rarely stated his reasoning in court, according to a review of cases that was conducted by Berks County Senior Judge Arthur Grim.

The ex-judge’s conduct, which included allowing a large number of juveniles to appear without an attorney, resulted in the Supreme Court overturning the convictions of thousands of juveniles who appeared before him.

Under the proposed rule changes, specific requirements would have to be met before a juvenile could waive their right to counsel. In addition, juveniles would have to answer a detailed list of questions before they would be permitted to admit to committing a crime.

In addition, the Supreme Court is considering directing all juveniles be presumed to be indigent for the purpose of determining whether they qualify to be represented by a public defender. Previously some counties, including Luzerne, had utilized the parents’ income in determining that. 33 News Summary February 18 –March 4, 2011

Other issues under consideration include modifications to rules regarding the use of restraints on juveniles during court proceedings as well as changes to rules that address the rights of victims of juvenile crime and training for probation officers.

The proposed changes would impact juvenile justice in all counties. The changes would not alter the law, but rather the manner in which it is applied.

Most of the suggested modifications are under review by committees of the Supreme Court that are made up of attorneys and other legal and judicial professionals. The suggestions first go through a public comment period. They are then sent back to the committee, which, after further deliberation, issues a report to the Supreme Court, which has the final say on whether to implement the suggestions.

In addition to changes to juvenile rules, the Supreme Court said changes are being made to ensure data that is collected regarding juvenile court dispositions are shared among various agencies to allow for the earlier detection of any aberrations.

That was a key issue revealed at hearings held by the Interbranch Commission. Data was available that showed 50 percent of juveniles who appeared before Ciavarella did not have an attorney – 10 times the state average – but for some reason it did not raise any red flags.

Castille noted the Supreme Court has also ordered an amendment to the Rules of Judicial Administration that would require any state judge who is under investigation by law enforcement to notify the court of that investigation.

Testimony at Ciavarella’s trial revealed he knew he and Conahan were under investigation at least as early as November 2007 for their acceptance of nearly $1 million from the builder of two juvenile facilities the county utilized. They were not officially relieved of their duties, however, until after they were charged in January 2009.

The court has also altered the code of judicial conduct for court employees to include protections under the Whistleblower Law. That will permit court employees to report any violation without fear of retaliation.

Castille said he believes the proposed changes address the key issues that led to abuses within Luzerne County. He praised the efforts of Senior Judge Chester Muroski, who was president judge when the scandal broke, and current President Judge Thomas Burke, to address the “unimaginable taint” that was brought upon the system by Ciavarella and Conahan.

“There are many individuals who work in the system who are dedicated to the welfare of juveniles who become involved in the juvenile justice system. These individuals have worked diligently to make the system a success,” Castille said.

34 News Summary February 18 –March 4, 2011

State Supreme Court chief outlines juvenile justice reform Citizens’ Voice (Wilkes-Barre) By Michael R. Sisak March 2, 2011 http://citizensvoice.com/news/state-supreme-court-chief-outlines-juvenile-justice-reform- 1.1112550#axzz1Fdpexjao

Nine months after a state commission recommended sweeping changes for the corruption-stained juvenile justice system, young defendants have greater access to legal representation, victims have a voice in court proceedings and judges are required to provide justification before sending a youth to detention.

State Supreme Court Chief Justice Ronald D. Castille outlined the reforms Tuesday in the first of what he said would be a series of occasional progress reports tracking shifts in the state's juvenile courts in the wake of a Luzerne County corruption scandal.

The state Interbranch Commission on Juvenile Justice last May urged more than 40 reforms in a 66-page post-mortem on the Luzerne County scandal and the two former judges there who accepted $2.8 million in payoffs for placing juveniles in two for-profit detention facilities.

The already enacted reforms are indication the state's courts "have not let the commission's report simply gather dust on a shelf," Castille said in a statement accompanying his progress report.

"The judiciary is committed to improving the juvenile justice system so that the problems that were highlighted by the tragedy in Luzerne County are never repeated there or in any other county," Castille said.

Under new rules, according to Castille's report:

> Public defenders can no longer consider parents' income when determining whether a juvenile qualifies for representation;

> Probation officers cannot physically restrain juveniles during their court appearances, except in rare instances to prevent harm, disruptive behavior or flight;

> Victims of juvenile crimes are being given notice of upcoming hearings and the opportunity to testify;

> Judges are required to state, on the record, a legal and factual basis for placing a juvenile in an out-of-home detention facility;

> and, facilities chosen for detention must be the "least restrictive" while still ensuring protection for the public and treatment and rehabilitation for the juvenile.

35 News Summary February 18 –March 4, 2011

Luzerne County President Judge Thomas F. Burke Jr. said Castille's progress report "shows the deep commitment by the court to take firm action and concrete steps " to implement the Interbranch Commission recommendations.

State Sen. John Yudichak, D-Nanticoke, said Tuesday he and state Sen. Lisa Baker, R-Lehman Township, would sponsor a package of juvenile justice reform bills prohibiting juveniles from waiving their right to an attorney and barring the use of handcuffs and shackles on juvenile defendants.

Another bill, he said, would create a statewide office of Juvenile Justice Victim Advocate in the state Office of the Victim Advocate. Yudichak is also introducing legislation to create a state Public Integrity Commission to uncover and investigate public corruption at all levels of government.

"It's readily apparent that the court is doing its part working with the other branches of government to ensure there will be safeguards in place to prevent a recurrence of the abuses that came to light with the Luzerne County juvenile scandal," Burke said.

New youth aid panels follow state recommended reforms Citizens’ Voice (Wilkes-Barre) By Kent Jackson March 3, 2011 http://citizensvoice.com/news/new-youth-aid-panels-follow-state-recommended-reforms- 1.1113168#axzz1Fdpexjao

A new program for disciplining young people who break the law in Luzerne County dovetails with state efforts to reform juvenile justice proceedings, the program's coordinator said Wednesday.

Bob Stevens said the county's youth aid panels follow the reforms of the state Interbranch Commission on Juvenile Justice by guiding juveniles to "restorative outcomes so they end up not going down that path again."

The Interbranch Commission recommended reforms after two former Luzerne County judges sullied the system by accepting $2.8 million of payments for sending juveniles to for-profit detention centers. In cases decided by the corrupt judges, juveniles often had no attorneys.

They won't have attorneys if they appear before the youth aid panels, either, but no judges sit on the panels, which will consist of volunteers from various professions. Stevens said steps will be taken to protect the rights of juveniles.

Authorities will talk to the young people and their parents before juveniles decide whether to appear before a youth aid panel or in juvenile court.

Youth aid panels are open only to first-time offenders who commit crimes such as underage drinking, possession of a small amount of marijuana or drug paraphernalia, fighting, harassment,

36 News Summary February 18 –March 4, 2011 criminal mischief, trespass, and summary thefts such as shoplifting. Police, school officials and parents must agree to send the youths to a panel.

The panelists also can decide that the program isn't right for the offender.

For youths whom they agree to discipline, the panelists will impose a three-month regimen. For example, the panel might require a young person to attend school, do community service and write letters of apology.

Youths who dislike the recommendations of the panel can opt to go to juvenile court instead.

A misconception is that the youth aid panels will just slap offenders on the wrist, Stevens said.

"That's not the case. This is for young people who made a mistake the first time, never had a problem before," he said.

Victims also will have a chance to tell panels how the crimes affected them, an opportunity that Chief Justice Ronald Castille of the Pennsylvania Supreme Court said victims should have. On Tuesday, Castille outlined reforms based on the recommendations of the Interbranch Commission.

Young offenders also will be required to repay restitution that they owe to victims. When restitution exceeds $500, the case will go to juvenile court, not a youth aid panel.

Next week, Stevens will start interviewing people who offered to serve on youth aid panels. Panels will convene in Wilkes-Barre, Nanticoke and Wyoming Valley West or serve more than one school district such as the Dallas and Lake-Lehman districts or Pittston Area and Wyoming Area districts, Stevens said.

About 36 people volunteered in the Hazleton Area School District, so Stevens said he would form two panels - one representing Hazleton and another serving the valley communities near Hazleton combined with municipalities in the Crestwood School District.

Our Opinion: It’s up to public to push reforms The Times Leader (Wilkes-Barre) March 4, 2011 http://www.timesleader.com/opinion/It_rsquo_s_up_to_public_to_push_reforms_03-03-2011.html

THE CLEANUP from Luzerne County’s “kids-for-cash” scandal won’t be quick, simple or nearly as enthralling as actor Charlie Sheen’s outlandish meltdown and whatever fleeting public fascinations might come next.

All the more reason area residents should be encouraged this week by state Supreme Court Chief Justice Ronald Castille’s release of a “progress report.”

37 News Summary February 18 –March 4, 2011

The report, issued Tuesday, outlines some of the court’s responses so far to the breakdown of this county’s juvenile justice system – failures that allowed certain young people to be sent to detention centers and “wilderness” camps after lickety-split hearings with little or no legal defense.

We urge the court to issue frequent updates on its statewide reform efforts, providing ample specifics. The information is essential for area residents so they not only can recover trust in the system, but also can participate in its revision. The public, for instance, is invited to read proposed rules changes and offer input.

One rule under consideration, Rule 152, involves “the ability of a juvenile to waive counsel, similar in some ways to the right of an adult to waive counsel at an adult trial,” according to Castille’s report. The public comment period on this matter ends April 27.

Any changes to a rule must get the OK of various rules committees, then earn the Supreme Court’s stamp of approval.

Separately, other reforms – proposed by lawmakers and advocacy groups as a result of the public corruption uncovered in Luzerne County’s court – await action. Public involvement, indeed, public pressure, will be required in many cases to see that these reforms don’t “die in committee.”

At this point, more than two years after the scandal broke, much repair work remains to be done. A core of committed area residents – judges, lawmakers, journalists and concerned citizens, especially victimized families – must see that it gets accomplished.

Why, we wonder, hasn’t a grass-roots group yet formed in Luzerne County to track these reforms and rally support at key moments?

Why not form one this month, using the state Supreme Court’s “progress report” as a starting point?

County: Scope of kids-for-cash kickback scheme is exaggerated Citizens’ Voice (Wilkes-Barre) By Michael R. Sisak March 4, 2011 http://citizensvoice.com/news/county-scope-of-kids-for-cash-kickback-scheme-is-exaggerated- 1.1113825#axzz1Fdpexjao

A civil complaint linking the Luzerne County government and former county officials to the "culture of corruption" that fueled an alleged kids-for-cash kickback scheme is based "entirely on innuendo and conjecture" and should be dismissed, the county's attorneys said in a filing in U.S. District Court Thursday.

The plaintiffs in the case, part of a set of lawsuits filed in the wake of the alleged scheme, "make facts up" to make the former officials appear corrupt, then change those facts "to suit their needs," the attorneys for the county said. 38 News Summary February 18 –March 4, 2011

Attorneys for the plaintiffs, a group of youths sentenced in the county's juvenile court and their parents, claimed former Judges Mark A. Ciavarella Jr. and Michael T. Conahan had open discussions with county officials about $2.8 million in payments the judges received from the backers of a for-profit juvenile detention facility.

"The actions of the county, through its chief policymakers, smell to high heaven, in that county officials were either expressly aware of the bribery scheme, or, at minimum, should have known about it and did nothing to intervene," attorneys for the plaintiffs alleged in a court filing last October.

Those officials included former county Commissioners Greg Skrepenak and Todd Vonderheid, former County Manager/Chief Clerk Samuel Guesto and former juvenile probation official Sandra M. Brulo, the plaintiffs' attorneys said.

One of the former commissioners, the plaintiffs' attorneys alleged, received a bribe "from the developers of the juvenile facilities in exchange for his vote to award a lease."

Skrepenak, 40, is serving two years in federal prison for accepting a $5,000 reward from a developer who received government financing through the county. He has not been implicated in the kids-for-cash case.

The county's attorneys, Deborah Simon, Jack Dean and Timothy Myers, said in their filing Thursday that the plaintiffs' attorneys "concocted" the bribery allegation and other claims in a "desperate attempt to contrive some factual basis" to tie the county and the former officials to the lawsuit.

"This bald allegation starkly contrasts with a vast record of numerous governmental investigations and proceedings that contain no such accusation," the county attorneys said.

A jury found Ciavarella guilty of racketeering and other charges in the case. Conahan pleaded guilty to racketeering conspiracy. Both are awaiting sentencing. Hundreds of former defendants in county juvenile court have filed civil-rights claims against the former judges and other individuals and entities implicated in the kids-for-cash case.

Pay now or pay more later Gov. Corbett needs to make smart choices in human services Pittsburgh Post-Gazette By Robert Nelkin March 04, 2011 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/11063/1129482-109.stm

We can pay now for effective programs or we can pay much more later.

39 News Summary February 18 –March 4, 2011

These words, spoken by gubernatorial candidate Tom Corbett last summer about how to prevent school failure, juvenile delinquency and crime, demonstrate his keen awareness of the impact of the budget decisions he's now weighing. As he outlined to a roomful of child advocates at a United Way meeting, his ideas were consistent with his work as chair of the Pennsylvania Commission on Crime and Delinquency, which fully supported research-based juvenile programs that reduce both crime and prison costs.

Now is the time for Mr. Corbett to imprint his belief on state government that it should invest in effective programs that generate results while saving Pennsylvania taxpayers money over time.

True, Mr. Corbett faces enormous challenges, from an estimated $4 billion deficit to a sharply divided political climate. With this comes a big opportunity. To shape a "smaller government," as he's proposed. To demonstrate fiscal restraint. To reduce the burden for future generations. And to fix a broken system.

In the budget that Mr. Corbett unveils Tuesday, I ask that he choose wisely to help us, the taxpayers, "pay now" instead of paying "much more later."

Specifically, I ask the governor to robustly fund "attendant care," which provides in-home caregivers for people with severe disabilities, helping them with basic needs such as bathing, dressing and meal preparation. If he does not, many people will be shipped off to nursing homes, become isolated from their communities and cost taxpayers much more in the long term. We cannot regress to the era when we inhumanely warehoused people simply because they were disabled.

I also ask the governor to build upon the state's advances in pre-school education for disadvantaged children. Quality pre-K schooling is proven to help children advance in language and other skills needed to succeed in kindergarten. A study in Allegheny County showed that quality pre-school decreased the number of disadvantaged children referred to special education in one district to 1 percent from 21 percent. Reducing special education placements saves taxpayers wads of money -- just one reason quality pre-school education is a wise investment for Pennsylvania taxpayers.

It is reasonable to expect the governor to act in accordance with his expressed belief that proven juvenile probation programs can prevent kids from spiraling into lives of crime. Allegheny County boasts innovative programs -- from interventions with young children struggling with serious behavior problems, to in-school probation officers, to intensive community-based supervision. The results: small rates of relapse and lots of positive outcomes for kids. Cuts to successful juvenile probation programs would raise incarceration costs (which average $32,059 per inmate per year) when Pennsylvania already leads the nation in prison growth.

It would be a great step backward if Allegheny County's nationally recognized child abuse and prevention programs took a big budget hit. So I ask Mr. Corbett to help parents gain confidence and learn skills to protect and nurture their children, which has proven effective and allowed the government to greatly reduce expensive out-of-home placements. These prevention efforts are not

40 News Summary February 18 –March 4, 2011 mandated and thus at risk of cuts, but they have saved taxpayers big time. Out-of-home placements cost $57,000 per child per year.

The governor would be prudent to support efforts to help citizens quit smoking or, better yet, prevent kids from starting in the first place. In Pennsylvania alone the tab for tobacco-related illnesses is $4.78 billion annually, shouldered by taxes and health care premiums that cover treatment for conditions like lung disease and cancer. Yet Pennsylvania just received F's from the American Lung Association in tobacco prevention and control, and in cessation coverage. The choice: We can prevent kids from starting tobacco use and reduce lifetime usage or we can pay the long-term costs.

A governor must choose wisely to put such enlightened policies in place. If he does nothing, bureaucratic inertia, antiquated laws and special interests will continue to plague our wasteful system of government, and we will pay through the nose for remedial programs after children have been abused or neglected, or become criminals, or suffered preventable illnesses or been subject to avoidable institutionalization.

It is time for intelligent reform of government human services. As state government becomes smaller, Pennsylvanians need effective and proven programs that produce results and ultimately save us money. Intelligent reform can be a defining legacy if Mr. Corbett continually asks two questions: Is there proof that the program works? Will it save us misery and money in the long run?

Let's pay some now rather than much more later.

Robert Nelkin is president and chief professional officer of United Way of Allegheny County (www.unitedway pittsburgh.org).

Top Stories - National

Setting Juveniles Straight in D.C. Youth Court Washington City Paper – Online (DC) Posted by Michelle Bradbury February 18, 2011 http://www.washingtoncitypaper.com/blogs/citydesk/2011/02/18/setting-juveniles-straight-in-d-c- youth-court/

Eight kids sit swiveling in their chairs, talking and chatting like it's just another Saturday morning. A man in front of them lays down some ground rules.

"You must pay attention, sit up-right," he says. "Don’t laugh or turn in your chair. Don’t be disrespectful. Show respect for the judges."

These are some of the rules that Nicholas Grimaldi, an advocate judge for Time Dollar Youth Court (TDYC), gives to the jury that will be deciding the cases he hears on Saturday mornings in the DC Court of Appeals at 500 Indiana Ave. NW. 41 News Summary February 18 –March 4, 2011

The eight kids who are laughing and swiveling are the jury members, completing part of their sentence from when they sat before a similar judge and jury, some Saturday mornings ago. Jury duty is what makes youth court work—it's not like the jury duty you might be used to. The youth that participate get to ask questions and they get to decide the sentencing of the juvenile sitting before them. Grimaldi, a law student by day, does not decide the case. He keeps decorum and helps the jury reason through punishments.

“Youth court is a home, it gives people a second chance” says Lamar Ramos-Peterson a graduating junior at Petworth's Roosevelt Senior High School who has been participating with D.C. Time Dollar Youth Court for the last two years.

Youth Court is a diversion program for juveniles who have committed their first or second crime. They process relatively minor offenses, from disorderly conduct to shoplifting to unlawful entry to simple assault. Most of the cases involve fighting in school.

“It is premised on the idea that kids don’t listen to adults,” says Rene Gornall, the contracts manager for TDYC. The scorn of peers, she reasons, might do more to change behavior than some more finger-wagging from adults.

"We call it positive peer pressure," Gornall says.

TDYC follows the peer jury model. Students who get processed through the normal juvenile justice system and diverted to the program must go through an intake interview and the peer jury hearing. They are then sentenced with a specific punishment. Almost all are given jury duty, an essay assignment pertaining to their case, and are asked to give a verbal apology to the parent with them.

Some are given additional sentences including community service, after-school programs, or educational programs.

“We recognize that kids are going to make some mistakes. But we want to guide and help them through that,” says TDYC Executive Director Carolyn Dallas. "Some of us got a second chance and some didn’t. My job is to say, ‘our kids need a second chance.'"

This idea is echoed not only by those who run the program but by those who participate. Ramos- Peterson says youth court gave him the second chance he needed how valuable that was for him. Even after his sentence, he sticks around as a volunteer.

Another high school student who participates in the program, Kevietta McCants, acts as an advocate judge. (McCants is there as a volunteer, not because she's been punished.)

“I’m going to be a principal,” says McCants who got involved eight years ago when her father worked with the program. “I think education is important and advocating for the youth. They make mistakes but ultimately, they’re good people and I want to help develop them and give them a second chance."

42 News Summary February 18 –March 4, 2011

Dallas cites a recent study that found that the kids who go through Youth Court come out with better decision making, goal setting and analytical skills. By working through the cases and deliberating on the sentences that they mete out, young offenders develop skills they could use to reason through other problems.

"We help young people make better decisions," Dallas says.

Despite research from the American Bar Association and other organizations that has found youth courts to be an effective use of funding, these programs face regular cash-flow problems, in D.C. and elsewhere.

"D.C. [government] is very committed," Dallas says. But her organization's funding history tells a more complicated story. Although TYDC started with $450,000 in taxpayer funding eight years ago, over the last two years, that number has decreased by $150,000, or a third. The program is constantly seeking alternate sources of revenue.

Governor wants to phase out state juvenile justice system Governor wants counties, not state, to house prisoners Ventura County Star (CA) By Kathleen Wilson February 19, 2011 http://www.vcstar.com/news/2011/feb/19/governor-wants-to-phase-out-state-juvenile/

Gov. Jerry Brown is proposing to close all state institutions holding violent young offenders and give counties the job of treating and housing them.

That would mean shutting down the Ventura Youth Correctional Facility on the western edge of Camarillo, which holds close to 350 young offenders, employs about 460 state workers and is expected to spend $58 million this fiscal year. The complex, in the midst of agricultural fields, could then be sold as surplus property or converted to some other use.

State finance officials see the plan as the final step in a long-standing effort to hand off responsibilities to counties where these youths live, rather than lock them up in far-off institutions. And counties would get the money to do it, officials said.

"They're handling 99 percent of these youths now," said H.D. Palmer, spokesman for the state Department of Finance.

But there is little support across the political spectrum, from lawyers battling for juvenile offenders to probation officers and experts who have investigated the state system. They're most concerned about the level of security and treatment local juvenile halls and camps would offer.

There's also the possibility that more juveniles would be tried as adults, which puts them on the path to state prison. Such cases already have doubled in California since 2004 in the wake of a 43 News Summary February 18 –March 4, 2011 voter initiative widening prosecutors' ability to file cases in adult court. Nor is there any model to follow because no state has ever attempted to do what Brown is proposing, corrections experts said.

"The impact of not having a state correctional juvenile system is you're going to waive more kids to the adult system," said Ned Loughran, executive director of the national Council of Juvenile Correctional Administrators. "If Gov. Brown goes through with this, there is no last resort for the juvenile offender."

Funding concerns

Under Brown's plan, the state Division of Juvenile Justice would stop accepting new inmates in the next fiscal year and phase out the institutions by 2014. The money being spent — about $240 million annually — would go to the counties.

But some officials wonder whether counties will be able to handle the job, especially if voters refuse to extend tax increases in a possible June election.

"The concern I would have is it's got to be funded," said Supervisor John Zaragoza, who represents the unincorporated area where the youth correctional facility is located.

Ventura County Chief Probation Officer Mark Varela opposes the proposal. Still, he believes his unit could develop the programs for these youths with adequate security and perhaps better results. It should be a small group, he said, noting that juvenile court judges have committed only six county youths to the state system in the past three years. A dozen more, however, were committed until their 18th birthdays because they were convicted as adults.

Cal Remington, former probation director in Ventura County and chief deputy officer for the Los Angeles County Probation Department, also opposes it. He said probation officials around the state are leery about taking on this group.

"We're handling thousands of kids that in the past would have been in a state institution," he said.

"The question is that tiny percentage, heavily sex offenders, heavily with mental health issues, heavily violent. That's a harder question to ask because that's a harder population."

The Ella Baker Center for Human Rights, an advocacy group for incarcerated youths, is the only known organization in support. The Oakland group's view is that it's time to fold a dysfunctional state system and develop one that could be a national model.

"It's a completely expensive system that has been an embarrassment to California compared to other states," said spokesman Abel Habtegeorgis.

"We don't have the time or money to pour taxpayers' money into ineffective things ... We see an incredible opportunity here."

44 News Summary February 18 –March 4, 2011

By statute only the most serious young offenders are now housed at the five remaining institutions, including the youth correctional facility off Wright Road. They are there for committing violent felonies, including murder, robberies and assaults.

Most will serve until a parole board decides they've been rehabilitated and releases them before age 25. Others convicted as adults will stay until they're 18, then be transferred to a state prison. But county juvenile authorities would inherit them all under the state proposal.

About 280 wards are confined at the Camarillo facility, with another 60 living in a training camp for firefighting outside the grounds. Superintendent David Finley calls it "a little city." The complex offers a high school, a full medical and dental clinic, athletic fields, and vocational classes in culinary arts, dog grooming and office skills.

It's clean and neat, but an institution all the same. Barbed wire tops the walls and state correctional officers guard the facility. The wards stay in rooms with tiny windows, their names and identification numbers posted outside. They sleep in bunk beds on concrete floors, one person to a room.

No escapes from the institutions have been recorded in the entire system in the past five years, according to state officials. Varela said the same claim can be made about Ventura County's juvenile hall, which he described as secure.

Focus on treatment

Officials say the quality of treatment has vastly improved since California entered into a 2004 settlement to end illegal practices and unsafe conditions in the state system formerly called the California Youth Authority.

Experts found unprecedented violence and pervasive lockdowns that prevented education and counseling programs in the system, according to a report from the Little Hoover Commission.

Audits by independent experts are now finding the institutions are achieving 84 percent of the goals set out in that settlement. Preliminary data shows a recidivism rate of 56 percent within three years, said Bill Sessa, spokesman for the state agency.

"In the last five years, treatment programs have gone through a radical reformation," he said. "The emphasis on treatment and rehabilitation is very strong."

Victor Hernandez, now 19, says the program is working for him.

The San Diego resident was facing 25 years in prison if convicted as an adult for a stabbing.

Instead, he was admitted to the Camarillo correctional facility at 15. He expects to be out by November, then return home, get a job and one day become a teacher.

45 News Summary February 18 –March 4, 2011

He noted that he stabbed a friend in a fit of anger during an argument, but she has forgiven him. He feels he has matured during his commitment.

"I'm not 15 no more," he said. "I'm not the same."

Staff members say treatment has improved as more counselors have been hired to implement reforms set out in the settlement. That has helped drive up the average annual cost per ward to $234,724 as the population has fallen, Sessa said. The system held about 10,000 in the 1990s, but now numbers only 1,200.

School psychologist Tahirih Post said the trade-off is worth it.

"It is awfully expensive here, but these are the neediest kids in the state of California," said Post, who joined the staff as part of the reform effort. "We're uniquely prepared to take care of this needy group. I don't see how we're going to take care of this group in our counties. Many have extreme mental health issues."

Some set fires, try to hang themselves, threaten suicide. Ninety percent of the girls have been physically or sexually abused, said Dr. Mark Hynum, a physician at the facility.

'Like adult prisons'

The institution dates from 1913, a time when reform schools were deemed the answer for wayward youths, not the last resort. It was located in Ventura, then moved to Camarillo in the 1960s.

Today, the complex holds the most young offenders in the state system, although two others in Stockton are close in size.

The wards held there now are much more difficult to handle, said Roderick Dixon, a youth correctional officer.

"The ones we used to have were more into learning," said the 32-year veteran. "There wasn't hardly no fights. Now it's more like adult prisons."

They're not the type younger kids in juvenile halls should mix with, said Greg Gonce, a teacher at the Camarillo facility.

"We have boys here 23, 24 years old," Gonce said. "Our average age is 19. If you put 19-year-olds in with 15-,16-year-olds, you're going to have real problems."

Even some of the most steadfast critics are questioning the move.

Sue Burrell, who has spent most of her career fighting abuses in the state system, said the institutions are still outdated and need to be replaced. But for now, she opposes a complete shutdown.

46 News Summary February 18 –March 4, 2011

She said most county juvenile halls do not have enough room for long-term confinement, nor would it be simple to regulate them.

"What they could do is shut down two more facilities, one in the north and one in the south," said Burrell, staff attorney with the Youth Law Center in San Francisco. "I also think they could streamline the staffing."

Closure would leave the property available for some other use, an option appealing to county officials facing heavy demand for jail space.

Supervisor Kathy Long, who represents Camarillo, said the county might want to acquire it for some other correctional use. She would oppose it as a site for a forensic hospital, a proposal that brought fierce opposition in 2008 and was ultimately defeated.

Don Coleman, presiding Juvenile Court judge in Ventura County, said the full impact may not be known until closure.

"Quite frankly if we put forth the effort and we're patient enough I think the vast majority of juveniles are not going to re-offend in adult court, but there is a certain segment that is extremely difficult to deal with. I cannot give you a complete answer."

Pa. Juvenile Justice In Spotlight After Verdict NPR By Joel Rose February 20, 2011 http://www.npr.org/2011/02/20/133920701/Pa-Verdict-Highlights-Flaws-In-Juvenile-Justice-System

A former Pennsylvania judge faces more than 150 years in prison for his role in a $2.8 million bribery scandal known as "cash for kids" after a jury convicted him Friday of taking kickbacks from the developer of a private detention center. But critics of the state's juvenile justice system say more reforms are still needed.

Hillary Transue was a high school sophomore with a spotless record in 2007 when she found herself in Judge Mark Ciavarella's courtroom in Wilkes-Barre, Pa. Her alleged crime was making a spoof MySpace page that poked fun at her high school's vice principal.

"The first thing Ciavarella said to me was what makes you think you can do this kind of crap?

Never got asked if I was guilty. It was just assumed that I was," she says.

Transue was expecting a stern lecture and probation. Instead she was sentenced to 90 days of detention and led out of the courtroom in handcuffs. That's when her mother brought the case to the Juvenile Law Center in Philadelphia.

47 News Summary February 18 –March 4, 2011

Marsha Levick, the center's deputy director, says it wasn't the first time the law center had heard of Ciavarella. She says kids routinely appeared in his courtroom without defense lawyers and received draconian sentences for minor infractions. Many were led out of the courtroom in shackles.

"This pervasive violation of kids' rights went on every day in front of the professionals who appeared in the courtroom, and for years, nobody said a thing," she says. "And so it went on unchallenged."

On Friday, a jury in Scranton, Pa., convicted Ciavarella on 12 counts, including racketeering. They found him guilty of taking kickbacks from a developer who built two private detention centers in Pennsylvania, but acquitted him of charges that he took bribes in exchange for sending juveniles to detention.

Transue, who is now at college in New Hampshire, has mixed feelings about the verdict.

"There definitely is justice in the world, and that makes me feel good. But it's kind of a letdown on the other hand that no one seemed to care that there was money involved," she says. "But it seems to me that the whole issue of injustice in general really wasn't addressed."

A Pennsylvania government commission conducted its own investigation of the "cash for kids" scandal last year. Many courthouse employees told the commission they were afraid to speak up for fear of retribution.

"There was a total collapse of the rule of law," said Judge John Cleland, the commission's chairman.

His panel issued a report in May 2010 that included 44 specific recommendations for reform. So far, only a few have been adopted.

"I made a commitment that this report would not sit on a shelf and collect dust," says Republican state Sen. Lisa Baker of Wilkes-Barre.

She introduced a package of reform measures last year, including one that would require defense counsel for all juvenile defendants. Her bills died in the Legislature last session, but Baker says she is determined to try again in the wake of Ciavarella's conviction.

"The timing of the verdict and the trial will help us really showcase why we need to make these changes and bring to light an important reason why this needs to be done as quickly as possible," she said.

But Levick at the Juvenile Law Center worries that problems in the juvenile justice system will fade from view now that the criminal trial is over.

48 News Summary February 18 –March 4, 2011

"The hard work lies ahead of us in Pennsylvania," she says. "The kinds of things we saw in Luzerne County could happen again, if we don't address the complacency and complicity and the lack of attention."

Levick says it was that complacency that allowed Ciavarella to enrich himself at the expense of Pennsylvania's children.

Protecting students' rights can be thorny The Orlando Sentinel (FL) By Lauren Roth February 20, 2011 http://articles.orlandosentinel.com/2011-02-20/features/os-law-and-you-schools-justice- 20110215_1_darrion-denson-juvenile-justice-school-cop

Student rights became an explosive issue in September after the alleged hazing of Dr. Phillips High School student Darrion Denson, who accused fellow football players of attacking him and throwing him into a garbage can.

The incident drew national attention, sparked a criminal investigation and created a public war of words between Denson's lawyer and the school district.

Much of the controversy centered on a perception by Denson's family that the school district was protecting those who were accused of attacking him.

But the school district's actions in this case were directly related to the laws and rules designed to protect the rights of students. Schools and the juvenile justice system have to manage a delicate balance. Both groups are required to protect the privacy of students, but they also work together daily and share information.

That relationship is governed by both state law and localized contracts known as "interagency agreements."

State statutes on juvenile justice require local sheriffs, police and schools to enter into these agreements, outlining specific rules for each county. Such agreements also are created for other purposes, such as sharing information about children in the child welfare system.

Some basics of the juvenile justice agreements are universal.

Police must tell a school district when an enrolled child of any age is formally charged with a felony, or an act that would be a felony for an adult. And schools are required to notify certain school personnel, including the student's teachers and bus driver, within 48 hours of hearing about such information.

49 News Summary February 18 –March 4, 2011

The Dr. Phillips case was complicated by the public nature of the allegations, as well as a state attorney's investigation that resulted in misdemeanor hazing and battery charges against six students – five minors and one adult. No one was charged with a felony.

Independent of the criminal investigation, the school district conducted its own investigation and punished one student deemed the "primary participant" in the attack.

If there had been an arrest at Dr. Phillips, police would have been required to inform school officials. But the resource officer, or school cop, did not make an arrest after being called to the incident.

Instead, the state's attorney investigated and filed charges two months later. School officials say they do not officially know which students were charged and cannot legally ask students to disclose that information.

Frank Kruppenbacher, the district's attorney until the spring, represents the Denson family and said a civil suit could be on the way.

The state attorney's office and the school district used to have a free flow of information, Kruppenbacher said, but that fell apart after a prosecutor used one student's academic record in a court case.

After that incident, "they went to a more conservative approach," he said.

School board Chairman Bill Sublette said that even if it were permissible, he doesn't think it would be fair to use information about juvenile misdemeanors to mete out punishments in school.

"We can't discipline based on supposition, without due process," Sublette said at a January workshop about the current interagency agreement. He is a former state representative who served on the juvenile justice committee.

"The juvenile justice system exists for a reason — it is rehabilitative," he said.

The Orange agreement, codified in 2001, does indicate that the superintendent can ask for a summary criminal history of students for assessment and placement purposes. The agreement does not say this information can be shared for disciplinary reasons.

Schools can and do discipline students for felony offenses. In Orange County schools, students formally charged with felonies or similar offenses are to be excluded from extracurricular activities. That rule is outlined in the student Code of Conduct.

The board in January agreed to ask for an opinion from the Attorney General's office clarifying whether state law allows law enforcement to share juvenile misdemeanor hazing charges with school officials. The district has not yet received a response.

50 News Summary February 18 –March 4, 2011

How young is too young? Twin Cities Daily Planet (MN) By Mike Cook, Session Weekly/Session Daily February 21, 2011 http://www.tcdailyplanet.net/news/2011/02/19/how-young-too-young

As she had done so many times before, Lynn Johnson dropped off her daughter at day care on June 16, 2006.

It would be the last time.

The 13-year-old son of the day care provider sexually assaulted Johnson's 2-year-old daughter, Emily, before violently throwing the toddler against a wall. Emily then laid there for two hours while her brain was deprived of oxygen, which caused irreversible brain damage. She was taken off life support one day later.

"The prosecutor in our case has stated that if she had the option, she would have strongly considered trying this person as an adult," Lynn Johnson told the House Public Safety and Crime Prevention Policy and Finance Committee Feb. 10.

Travis Johnson, Emily's father, said the perpetrator pleaded guilty to second-degree manslaughter and served two years in a detention center, lived with his aunt for one year on probation and is now living with his parents until his 19th birthday. At age 19 his juvenile record will be sealed and none of his previous incidents will show up on things like a background check for employment.

"Would you want him or her watching your child at day care, coaching their Little League game?" he said.

At the time of the incident, their daughter's killer was 19 days shy of his 14th birthday, meaning he could not be tried as an adult.

When kids are not kids anymore

Currently, children ages 14-17 who are alleged to have committed a felony-level offense can be certified as adults for criminal court or may be prosecuted as an extended jurisdiction juvenile to give the child one last chance to stay law-abiding. According to state statute, "If a child is prosecuted as an EJJ and is convicted, the child receives both a juvenile disposition and a stayed adult sentence. If the child violates the juvenile disposition order, the adult sentence may be executed and the child may be sent to prison."

51 News Summary February 18 –March 4, 2011

In other cases it is hoped that a child below a certain age can be rehabilitated.

"These kids are not kids anymore when they commit the intentional act of murder and should be treated as such," Travis Johnson said. "I do not advocate them being incarcerated with adult offenders, but with juveniles of similar age. They need to be punished."

Rep. Torrey Westrom (R-Elbow Lake) wants to lower the minimum age to 10 if the child is alleged to have committed a violent juvenile offense, including first- through third-degree murder, first- and second-degree manslaughter, criminal sexual conduct and malicious punishment of a child. It would also restrict a court's ability to expunge a juvenile record if the juvenile is adjudicated delinquent for committing a violent juvenile offense. A court may now expunge a juvenile court record at any time, unless the child is transferred to the custody of the Department of Corrections.

A bill he sponsors, HF306, was held over by the committee for possible further action. It has no Senate companion.

"The goal and objective here is to improve the juvenile justice system, and not have glaring omissions of injustice," Westrom said. "It's not a foregone conclusion that just lowering the age from 14 to 10 that those juveniles committing felony crimes, injuries to persons, would be EJJ or certified as an adult. The courts would still have that review and that discretion. ... It's time to get our arms around this, and not let another family, any other parties and citizens of the state of Minnesota feel the injustice that the Johnsons have felt."

"My intention is to move forward and not let it die again in committee," said Committee Chairman Tony Cornish (R-Good Thunder).

What's the magical age?

A bill last biennium to lower the age to 13, HF317/ SF256, was heard, but not acted upon, by the House Public Safety Policy and Oversight Committee, and laid on the table by the Senate Judiciary Committee. Its sponsors were Rep. Bud Nornes (R-Fergus Falls) and former Sen. Dan Skogen (DFL-Hewitt). Nornes co-sponsors the new bill.

According to the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention, in 13 states, a juvenile can be tried as an adult at age

13 or lower for the commission of a violent crime; including 12-year-olds in Colorado and Montana, and 10-year-olds in Kansas and Vermont. The age for a transfer to adult certification is 14 in Indiana, but 10 if it is a murder case. A 13-year-old can be charged as an adult for murder in New York.

"What makes 14 a magical age?" Lynn Johnson said. "Why is our daughter lying in the ground while her killer is allowed to continue on with his life with minimal interruption?"

The state public defender and representatives of the state county attorneys and state corrections associations spoke against the bill. The American Civil Liberties Union of Minnesota and

52 News Summary February 18 –March 4, 2011

Minneapolis Police Chief Tim Dolan sent letters in opposition.

Dolan, who called the Johnson case a "sad isolated action committed by a very sick individual," believes society can do better for youthful offenders than incarceration. "I know that our adult criminal justice system will not rehabilitate a ten to fourteen year old violent offender."

Michael Belton, deputy director for Ramsey County Juvenile Corrections, agrees. He said the bill would be "a short-term response that tends to compromise long-term public safety interests," in part, because studies show a juvenile offender is more likely to be rearrested if sentenced to adult prison because of what is learned from older inmates.

"An adult correctional facility ... is not about rehabilitation," said Rep. Kerry Gauthier (DFL-Duluth). "We cannot put children in those situations."

State Public Defender John Stuart called Emily's case a "heartbreaking, shocking crime," but he reminded everyone that the juvenile court would have more power over the offender compared to adult court.

"This juvenile was convicted of second-degree manslaughter. That's another crime where the adult sentence is 48 months. You take your 10- or 11- or 13-year-old and they do 32 months in prison then they are on supervised release for 16 months, and they're done," he said. "Meanwhile, the juvenile court has got the power, even without the EJJ provision to keep that juvenile under control until age 19. ... There's some things that juvenile court can do for public safety and there's some things that adult court can do for public safety."

Rep. Sheldon Johnson (DFL-St. Paul) has spent more than three decades working in the state corrections system. He believes that children barely out of elementary school have no business facing the same charges as an adult.

"Young children have different brain development and research has shown that their ability to reason doesn't develop until they're older," he said. "To think that we're going to judge children by the same standards as adults is terrifically bad criminal justice policy."

Lynn Johnson is OK that others don't view Westrom's bill as the right answer, as long as they see it as a start.

"We have asked to revamp a system that failed us miserably," she said. "We want to work with the Legislature. We don't expect it to be 10. ... We want to work with you guys and make the system work for our children and for us as members of society so we can feel safe."

Pennsylvania Judge Convicted in Alleged 'Kids for Cash' Scheme Judge Mark Ciavarella Could Face Over 10 Years in Prison for Racketeering Good Morning America – ABC News February 21, 2011

53 News Summary February 18 –March 4, 2011 http://abcnews.go.com/US/mark-ciavarella-pa-juvenile-court-judge-convicted-alleged/story? id=12965182

A former juvenile court judge in Pennsylvania could face more than 10 years in prison after being convicted in what prosecutors called a "kids for cash" scheme.

Prosecutors say former Luzerne County Judge Mark Ciavarella used children as pawns, locking them up unjustly in a plot to get rich. Ciavarella is accused of taking nearly $1 million in kickbacks from owners of private detention centers in exchange for placing juvenile defendants at their facilities, often for minor crimes. Ciavarella claims that the payment he received from a developer of the PA Child Care facility was legal and denies that he ever incarcerated kids for money.

"Absolutely never took a dime to send a kid anywhere," said Ciavarella.

Ciavarella, 61, was found guilty of 12 out of 39 charges on Friday, including racketeering, money laundering and conspiracy, in connection with the nearly $1 million payment from Robert Mericle, the developer of the PA Child Care center. He plans to appeal. Ciavarella was acquitted on charges of bribery and extortion in relation to additional payments from the center's builder and owner.

Families complain of Ciavarella's rapid-fire brand of justice and trials that lasted only minutes with even first-time offenders sent to detention centers.

In one reported case, Ciavarella sentenced a child to two years for joyriding in his mom's car. In another, he sentenced a college-bound high school girl to three months in juvenile detention for creating a website that made fun of her assistant principal. Some of the kids he ordered locked up were as young as 10.

"The numbers of children going into placement in Luzerne County tended to be two to three times higher than in other counties," said Marsha Levick, deputy director of the Juvenile Law Center in Philadelphia.

In October 2009, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court dismissed 4,000 juvenile delinquency cases Ciavarella handled from Jan. 1, 2003 to May 31, 2008. The court said that it "cannot have any confidence that Ciavarella decided any Luzerne County juvenile case fairly and impartially while he labored under the specter of his self-interested dealings with the facilities," and called Ciavarella's actions a "travesty of juvenile justice."

Mom Confronts Convicted Judge After Verdict

Though most of the affected youth have already served their time, many parents were outraged by Ciavarella's sentence, including Sandy Fonzo, who could not contain her anger.

Fonzo's son Edward Kenzakoski was sentenced by Ciavarella to juvenile detention in 2003 for possession of drug paraphernalia. Fonzo said her 17-year-old son had no prior record when he

54 News Summary February 18 –March 4, 2011 landed in Ciavarella's courtroom. She claims Kenzakoski never recovered from the months he served behind bars and years later, at 23, he killed himself.

"Do you remember me? Do you remember me? Do you remember my son? He was an all-star wrestler and he's gone," Fonzo screamed to Ciavarella as he exited the courthouse Friday. Ciavarella remains free until sentencing. Fonzo said she expected to see Ciavarella carted off in handcuffs as the former judge often did to juveniles he sentenced.

Ciavarella is expected to get a minimum prison sentence of 12 years behind bars, according to prosecutors. To Fonzo, that is not justice.

"You know what he told everybody in court? They need to be held accountable for their actions," she yelled to Ciavarella Friday. "You need to be!!"

The case of alleged corruption first shocked Luzerne County residents in January 2009 when federal prosecutors announced that the respected county judgesCiavarella and Michael Conahan had pleaded guilty to tax evasion and honest services fraud. However, the plea deal and relatively light sentence were later rejected by a federal judge who ruled that Ciavarella had failed to accept responsibility for the crimes.

Wilkes-Barre residents exploded with anger when they heard that men they elected, and trusted to judge their children, had allegedly profited from their incarceration.

Conahan pleaded guilty to one count of racketeering conspiracy on July 23, 2010. He faces up to 20 years, but has not yet been sentenced.

Convicted in Pennsylvania Kids-for-Cash Scheme, Faces Long Prison Term and Class-Action Lawsuit Democracy Now February 22, 2011 http://www.democracynow.org/2011/2/22/judge_convicted_in_pennsylvania_kids_for

A federal jury has found a former Pennsylvania judge guilty of participating in a so-called "kids-for- cash" scheme, in which he received money in exchange for sending juvenile offenders to for-profit youth jails over the years. Former Luzerne County Judge Mark Ciavarella, Jr. was convicted Friday of accepting bribes and kickbacks for putting juveniles into detention centers operated by PA Child Care and a sister company, Western Pennsylvania Child Care. Ciavarella and another judge, Michael Conahan, are said to have received $2.6 million dollars for their efforts. Ciavarella faces a maximum sentence of 157 years in prison, in addition to a class-action lawsuit on behalf of the youths’ families. For more on this story, we are joined by Marsha Levick of the Juvenile Law Center and to Sandy Fonzo, who believes her son committed suicide after Ciavarella sent him to jail twice.

55 News Summary February 18 –March 4, 2011

Marsha Levick, Co-founder and Chief Counsel of the Juvenile Law Center, based in Philadelphia. The Juvenile Law Center helped expose the corrupt judges and is now involved in the families’ class-action suit.

Sandy Fonzo, mother of Edward Kenzakoski, who was sentenced by Luzerne County Judge Mark Ciavarella, Jr. to four months in boot camp and 30 days in a youth jail. Kenzakoski committed suicide last June, and Fonzo believes his death is related to his treatment by Ciavarella.

Cash for Kids? The Joy Behar Show February 22, 2011 Please click the link below to view the segment: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pqgs6Ol5PSc

JOY BEHAR, HOST: Here`s a story that really ticks me off. A Pennsylvania judge has been convicted for giving kids harsh sentences in private prisons for minor infractions. Why? Because the prisons were paying him, that`s why.

One kid who was sentenced by Judge Mark Ciavarella ended up committing suicide. Let`s watch his mother confront the judge…

BEHAR: Here now to discuss this are Laurene Transue (ph), whose daughter was sentenced to a detention center by Judge Mark Ciavarella, the same one you just saw; Lourdes Rosado, associate director at the Juvenile Law Center; and Judge Glenda Hatchett, author of "Dare to Take Charge: How to live your life on purpose"…

HATCHETT: This is ridiculous. The thing is, Joy, what we have to remember is that the private -- these private facilities are getting so much money based on how many children are in the facility. So the more children that are there, the more money they`re going to get in per diems.

But incarceration should be the last alternative. It should not be a situation like this. And this really is outrageous. So the Supreme Court went back and literally looked at every case between 2003 and 2008 and threw out some 4,000 decisions that he had made, because this is absolutely outrageous.

BEHAR: It`s outrageous.

HATCHETT: It`s an abuse of power.

BEHAR: I mean, I was reading that a 12-year-old was sentenced to two years for joy riding in his mother`s car.

HATCHETT: In his mother`s car.

BEHAR: How did this guy get away with this? Was no one watching this man? Where were the 56 News Summary February 18 –March 4, 2011 police? Where were other judges? Where were the parents? Where was everybody?

HATCHETT: Good question. And again, and it`s also the problem is that judges often really are operating in an autonomous situation. But we took an oath to act in the public`s best interest, not to abuse it…

ROSADO: If I could add, one of the thing -- well, we didn`t know about the corruption and obviously the payoffs until the U.S. attorney issued its statement. What people did know is that Judge Ciavarella was regularly holding hearings without attorneys representing kids. It was very much like Hillary`s hearing where they were in a matter of 60 seconds, two minutes, the kid was admitting to something without even knowing exactly what they were admitting to or what the consequences of admitting to a charge was.

They didn`t have an attorney, and all of a sudden they were shackled and handcuffed and hauled out of the courtroom.

BEHAR: My God, it`s like a dictatorship in that county.

HATCHETT: Because an attorney could have raised the questions that you`re asking, Joy. An attorney would have intervened in a situation. That`s exactly why he was just railroading these children through, and parents are just sitting there in absolute fear, because there was no counter- voice in this courtroom.

BEHAR: Judge Hatchett, what`s going to happen to this judge? I hope they send him up for 50 years. What`s going to happen to him?

HATCHETT: It`s going to be very interesting. People have asked me if I think he will get more lenient sentencing because he is a judge, and I think not…

Today Show – Kids For Cash The Today Show – NBC February 23, 2011 Please click the link below to view the segment: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oNn-lzSYNNc

Ann Curry talks to Sandy Fonzo, the aggravated and grieving mother of a former PA Child Care inmate, about the conviction of Judge Mark A. Ciavarella Jr., the judge that put kids in juvenile hall when they didn't need to be put there in exchange for cash.

“…they appeared without lawyers, they had hearings that lasted 2-3 minutes, they were handcuffed and shackled, and led off to placement, and I think that the story of Sandy’s son is tragic in ways that none of us can even imagine, but the kind of trauma that all of the kids have

57 News Summary February 18 –March 4, 2011 experienced up there as a consequence of the corruption and criminality that was on going and this widespread violation of children’s Constitutional rights is really extraordinary.”

‘Sexting’ bill gives options to prosecutors The Dayton Daily News (OH) By Eric Schwartzberg February 24, 2011 http://www.daytondailynews.com/news/dayton-news/sexting-bill-gives-options-to-prosecutors- 1090089.html

WARREN COUNTY — A local legislator wants to provide prosecutors and judges with an additional tool when faced with cases involving minors sending nude images of themselves to other minors via cell phones.

Rep. Ron Maag, R-Salem Twp., has introduced House Bill 53, legislation aimed at addressing the issue commonly referred to as “sexting.” HB 53 would make the offense a first degree misdemeanor, with a penalty of no more than six months in prison and a fine of more than $1,000.

Under the new legislation, a felony charge would not be ruled out entirely, but would be reserved for cases in which the true intent of the crime is malicious.

Maag said children sending sexual images do not consider that the image may be end up viewed pedophiles who may track them down or, in the long-term, by future employers or college deans. “That’s the thing that kids don’t understand,” Maag said. “Once it gets out there on the Internet, there’s no stopping it or where it goes. Once they send that photo out, it’s out there.”

Because sexting between minors is not addressed in the Ohio Revised Code, any minor caught possessing or sending any such image can be charged with a felony of the second degree and be issued a sex offender status.“This (new legislation) would provide prosecutors and judges with an additional tool when faced with these cases so that they are not completely limited in charging minors with felonies, as they currently are today,” Maag said. “While most of these cases are not worthy of labeling a child as a sex offender for life, a misdemeanor charge will still be enough to let young kids know that this behavior is not appropriate.”

While judges can impose lesser penalties for juveniles in such a case, including up to 90 days in jail or counseling, legislation specifically addressing the problem of sexting is valuable and “a long time coming,” according to Warren County Juvenile Court Judge Mike Powell.

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“One of the problems that we’ve seen is that the statutes we have on the books right now don’t fit the conduct as well as we would like and sometimes we see a child charged with an offense that really is more serious than the conduct involved,” Powell said.

The “sexting” bill is a reintroduction from the original legislation Maag introduced nearly two years ago in April 2009.

“House Bill 53 brings needed balance to Ohio law to hold teenagers accountable for their actions, without having to charge them as sexual offenders and will raise awareness for how serious and common sexting has become,” Maag said during sponsor testimony last week.

Catching young criminals before they are lost St. Petersburg Times (FL) By Sue Carlton, Times Columnist February 25, 2011 http://www.tampabay.com/news/publicsafety/catching-young-criminals-before-they-are- lost/1153676

The first child up on the afternoon docket is all of 12, with long eyelashes and traces of baby fat. "Nine, 10, 11 …" says Hillsborough Circuit Judge Tracy Sheehan, adding up not his age but the charges against him.

She peers down: How did this kid, not yet a teenager, even know how to drive?

"My grandfather," the boy says, though surely grand theft auto was not what the grandfather had in mind. A burly Department of Juvenile Justice officer reaches to straighten the collar of the boy's jail uniform. It's tan, a color that means he hasn't been swallowed by the adult system, at least not yet.

On this same day, we woke to find the face of another kid staring out from the front page. Nick Lindsey, 16, is accused of gunning down St. Petersburg police Officer David Crawford during a routine call about a prowler. It's hard to grasp the utter waste of a good cop's life, and the life of a teenager thrown away. In the photo, the boy looks too young and very old.

Lindsey traveled this same juvenile justice system, with some defendants so small they roll up their jail pants so they don't trip as they shuffle along, chained hand and foot. Judge Sheehan has been assigned here only 31/2 weeks, but already she's seen what's frustrated Florida's juvenile judges for decades.

Children who don't pass middle school math but expertly tally points on their criminal score sheets and predict the date they'll be back on the street. Parents who won't show without the threat of criminal contempt. A system that hasn't figured out how to intervene with equal parts support and discipline when these defendants are still young enough to reach. A do-less-with-more economy in a system already stretched past its limits.

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The public defender wants the boy sent home. The mother, just out of jail herself, says there's no place for his "sticky fingers." The boy says he just wants to see his younger sister again. The judge opts for a live-in program. She asks that the sister be allowed to visit.

"Someone needs to grab ahold of you and get you moving in the right direction," she tells him.

"Hopefully, someday you'll be 18 and say, 'Wow, I was a stupid young kid then.' "

Here's the question you'll hear: Why bother?

If saving a kid isn't enough, well, there's public safety. There's stopping petty crimes from becoming violent ones. There's the fact that housing just one of the 36,992 inmates sent to prison last year costs us an average of $19,469 a year.

The last person on her docket this day is 17. Like Nick Lindsey, he had not been charged with violence before this, before the gun.

With Lindsey, it was stealing cars. This teenager repeatedly trespassed and got in minor scrapes — until January, when police say he and a friend walked up to a man, put a gun to his head and robbed him.

This time, he wears fluorescent orange and the words Hillsborough County Jail stamped across his back, the color of the big time. Next stop: adult court and the very real possibility of state prison.

The street tough is gone. He looks miserable. He looks young.

"I don't know who's to blame here," the judge says. The system for not stepping in sooner? The boy for failing himself? There is enough to go around.

"Good luck to you," she says, because what else is there, and the bailiff takes him away.

Obama Plan Makes Juvenile Justice Compliance the Basis, Not the Reason, for Federal Funding Youth Today (DC) By John Kelly February 25, 2011 (Subscription required) http://www.youthtoday.org/view_article.cfm?article_id=4644

The Justice Department’s first public statement on the juvenile justice plan proposed in President Barack Obama’s 2012 budget suggests that states with a track record on reform would be in pole position for federal funding while other states might not even get to the starting line.

In a statement released late yesterday, the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention told Youth Today that Obama’s “Race to the Top-style” plan for 2012 juvenile justice funding is 60 News Summary February 18 –March 4, 2011 designed to reward “states that demonstrate the highest achievement in key juvenile justice reforms.”

The minimal details of the plan released in the president’s budget brought immediate criticism from some juvenile justice advocates…

Backlash prompts Brown to alter realignment plan Associated Press (AP) – Sacramento Bureau (CA) By DON THOMPSON February 28, 2011 Posted on: http://www.mercurynews.com/breaking-news/ci_17504914?nclick_check=1

SACRAMENTO, Calif.—Gov. Jerry Brown altered his proposal to realign certain state and local government responsibilities Monday after criticism from local law enforcement authorities but still expects substantial savings in the years ahead if the Legislature approves the plan.

The state would continue to oversee more dangerous parolees and juvenile offenders rather than having them placed in county jails or monitored by local officials, aides to the Democratic governor said. Under the administration's revised plan, counties would focus on handling lower-risk offenders and parolees.

Pushing some corrections and law enforcement-related functions to local governments was one way Brown sought to save money as California faces a $26.6 billion deficit.

In exchange for the state incarcerating and supervising more inmates than under his original plan, Brown proposed that the state would provide counties with less money for other programs. Those would include counseling for rape victims, assessing the potential for certain inmates to be sexually violent offenders and training for some local law enforcement officers.

Most convicts who are not sex offenders or are considered non-serious offenders and nonviolent would be housed in county jails, as Brown proposed in his January budget.

The administration also agreed to pay counties more money for housing inmates who will serve more than three years in local jails.

Counties would be responsible for supervising nonviolent offenders after their release from custody. But under Brown's revised plan, the state would continue to supervise high-risk sex offenders, those who completed serving a sentence for a serious or violent crime and those with a third "strike," or conviction.

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For example, the state now supervises parolees who had served time for such offenses as petty theft with a prior conviction, drug possession, grand theft and fraud. Under Brown's government realignment, that responsibility would shift to county probation officers.

However, the administration's revised plan addresses the concerns of law enforcement officials by ensuring that more serious crimes would merit incarceration in state prisons and parolee supervision by state parole agents. Those crimes include solicitation for murder, felony child abuse, felony domestic violence assault on a peace officer and human trafficking.

Brown's revised plan also would let counties contract with the California Division of Juvenile Justice to handle violent youth. His January budget proposed eliminating the division altogether. "I do think we try to listen to law enforcement and the concerns that they had," Brown's special budget adviser, Diane Cummins, told a legislative conference committee on Monday. "I think this should make them more comfortable."

Even with the changes, the administration says its latest realignment proposal will save $2 billion once it is fully implemented in four years and reduce the prison population by 38,000 inmates—the estimated number of lower-level offenders the state hopes to transfer to county jurisdiction. The proposals would affect only offenders convicted after the budget takes effect. Current inmates and parolees would remain under the state's supervision.

The full savings would come only if the state reduces its inmate population enough to close some prisons, said Todd Jerue, a program manager with the state Department of Finance.

That, however, could be affected by a pending U.S. Supreme Court decision over whether the state must reduce prison crowding to improve medical and mental health treatment for inmates.

Closing some prisons to save money would leave others more crowded, potentially putting the state in conflict with the federal court receiver who is overseeing inmate medical care.

"We think it's markedly better than the original plan," said Nick Warner, spokesman for the California State Sheriffs' Association. "We appreciate the governor listening to the concerns from local public safety, from sheriffs, and we intend to take a more formal position in coming days."

Karen Pank, spokeswoman for the Chief Probation Officers Association of California, said her organization supports the revised plan in concept. In a letter to Brown, her association similarly asked that funding for counties be guaranteed.

Family therapy keeps Brevard County teenagers out of jail Youth less likely to re-offend Florida Today By REBECCA BASU February 28, 2011 http://www.floridatoday.com/article/20110228/NEWS01/102280311/0/NEWS02/Family-therapy- keeps-Brevard-County-teenagers-out-jail?odyssey=nav%7Chead 62 News Summary February 18 –March 4, 2011

COCOA — Steven Scott did not get along with his stepdad. They had arguments. Scott's mother found herself in the middle often, playing referee.

It got worse when the two had a physical altercation.

Police were called. Steven, 16, was arrested.

"They didn't know how to communicate with each other," said Julie Scott, Steven's mom.

As part of his probation, Steven went to Cocoa-based Crosswinds Youth Services to participate in a family therapy program aimed at keeping teens from re-offending and keeping them out of the juvenile justice system.

Scott said her family is back together, and she's no longer playing referee.

The Crosswinds program is one of many in Florida to be implemented as the state makes reforms to the justice system.

For many years, Florida has had one of the highest juvenile commitment rates in the country. In 2006, for example, Florida committed children at a rate 50 percent higher than the national average, according to a report by Southern Poverty Law Center, a civil rights and policy group.

Crosswinds helps troubled teens and families through 11 programs.

When Crosswinds started the family therapy program as a pilot three years ago, it needed to prove it would work -- teens couldn't get arrested again or violate probation, and substance abuse behaviors needed to stop or lessen.

With the program in its fourth year, statistics show teens aren't re-offending. In 2009, 78 percent of teens served didn't re-offend.

After Steven was arrested and he was referred to Crosswinds for help, Julie Scott said she was at first a little mystified.

"My idea of therapy was what I'd seen on television, with someone sitting on a couch, spilling your guts," she said. This was different.

A counselor visited the family's home. All family members were involved.

"You work on communication," she said.

The program, called Brief Strategic Family Therapy and developed by researchers at the University of Miami, can take place anywhere the family interacts in short sessions usually lasting 12 to 16 weeks.

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When the Scott family would fight, the counselor would intervene and ask questions to make them think about their behavior and change the ways in which they related to and understood each other.

BSFT is one of roughly 25 programs, many of which are family therapies, that Florida Department of Juvenile Justice recognizes for helping troubled teens.

Crosswinds is the only DJJ partner in Florida to use the BSFT model.

Short-term family therapies "have taken off specifically because of the pressures of managed care and getting families and children treatment that is solution-specific, and getting them in and out quickly," said Paula Wolfteich, director of the family learning program at Florida Tech.

Redirection

Family therapy programs, which are sometimes called "redirection" by the state, in part, are keeping youth from commitment, which is costly and often ineffective.

Since 2005, redirection programs have saved taxpayers $50 million, according to a report from the state's office of program accountability.

The number of youth committed, or sentenced to serve time in a secure juvenile residential facility, has declined every year for the past five years, from 8,205 in 2006 to 5,476 last year, according to DJJ.

Still, large numbers of low-risk youth are getting committed.

In 2009, more than 1,100 children were committed for nothing more than a misdemeanor, according to the Southern Poverty Law Center report.

The center recommends expanding redirection programs. DJJ officials couldn't offer specifics.

"We have a new secretary (Wansley Walters) who is committed to community-based models," said Mark Greenwald, DJJ Chief of Research and Planning.

"I wouldn't be surprised as an agency if we move in that direction. She's only been here a few weeks, and we're still working on these things."

Gov. Rick Scott's proposed budget calls for more money for redirection and less for commitment. A bill attached to Scott's proposal also seeks an outright ban on committing teens with misdemeanors.

It costs the state $109.22 per child per day for non-secure and $155.98 per child per day for secure facilities, according to one analysis.

Back together

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Crosswinds gets about $310,000 from DJJ for the therapy program and maintained the same funding level, though its counselors went from three to two.

"All DJJ programs are at risk of being cut, but the evidence from these programs is wonderful. If we're being recognized nationally, that shows this is effective," said Crosswinds Chief Operating Officer Karen Locke, referring to an award from the federal Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration.

Julie Scott, the mother whose son recently completed the family therapy program, said the family likely wouldn't have sought counseling on their own.

"I'm glad we had to go through it," she said. "We needed some way to get back together."

Our views: Keeping teens out of jail Family programs break crime cycle Florida Today March 1, 2011 http://www.floridatoday.com/article/20110301/OPINION/110228021/1006/news01/Our-views- Keeping-teens-out-jail-March-1-?odyssey=nav%7Chead

If you want to create a career criminal, here’s how to do it:

Take a troubled teen arrested on a minor charge, toss him or her in a juvenile detention facility with hard-core offenders, then walk away.

Come back a few years later when they reach adulthood and you will have reaped what you’ve sown.

There is an alternative that produces a much different result.

It’s Florida’s family therapy programs, called “redirection” in the juvenile justice system, where youths get together with their parents to address the problems that often send them in the wrong direction.

The programs work, breaking the cycle of crime and saving taxpayers money.

Cocoa-based Crosswinds Youth Services is a prime example. Three years ago, it started a pilot family program to prevent teens from getting arrested again, violating probation or using drugs.

It’s a major success, with 79 percent of enrolled Brevard teens not re-offending in 2009.

Similar stories are heard around the state, where the programs have reduced the number of juveniles sentenced to time in secured facilities from 8,205 in 2006 to 5,476 last year. That has

65 News Summary February 18 –March 4, 2011 saved taxpayers $50 million and far more in the future because would-be adult criminals have a chance to lead productive lives.

However, trouble may be coming. On the one hand, Gov. Rick Scott wants to spend more on redirection programs and less on juvenile incarceration, which is the smart course of action.

A bill attached to Scott’s proposal also seeks a ban on jailing teens with first-time misdemeanors, another good move. Yet Scott wants to cut $108 million from the Department of Juvenile Justice that administers the programs and merge it with the Department of Children and Families, where he wants to cut more than 1,800 jobs.

Both agencies already have sustained reductions, and merging them could create a bureaucratic nightmare that could hurt direly needed programs, like the one at Crosswinds.

Scott should ensure that such core efforts are spared.

Others agree, including Florida TaxWatch and the Southern Poverty Law Center, which said in a recent report that Florida should shift more resources into community-based programs such as Crosswinds.

“Florida not only incarcerates far too many low-risk children, but they stay too long in residential facilities, making it harder for them to readjust when they are released,” said Vanessa Carroll, co- director of the Southern Poverty Law Center’s Florida Youth Initiative.

The study also noted that Florida spends $240 million annually on juvenile justice residential facilities that do not make Florida safer, but more vulnerable because they make low-risk children more likely to re-offend and they incur higher long-term costs to the state.

In fact, about 70 percent of juveniles jailed in Florida are there because they committed nonviolent crimes, and 44 percent are locked up for misdemeanor and probation violations.

Meanwhile, officials are nervous at Crosswinds, which gets about $310,000 from the Department of Juvenile Justice for its program.

“All DJJ programs are at risk of being cut, but the evidence from these programs is wonderful. If we’re being recognized nationally, that shows this is effective,” Crosswinds chief operating officer Karen Locke told FLORIDA TODAY, referring to a federal award the program won.

Yes, very effective, and good reason to expand them.

Juvenile Justice Secretary favors therapeutic approach The Orlando Sentinel (FL) By Tonya Alanez, Tallahassee Bureau March 1, 2011

66 News Summary February 18 –March 4, 2011 http://www.orlandosentinel.com/news/politics/os-rick-scott-juvenile-justice- 20110225,0,1784584.story

The state's new head of juvenile justice wants to duplicate across the state the results she helped bring about in Miami-Dade County, where juvenile arrests were cut in half and re-arrests plummeted.

Over 14 years, Wansley Walters either served as director of the county's Juvenile Services Department or headed up an evolving chain of county and police juvenile departments, where she oversaw an array of reforms and the creation of an innovative program that steers youths into counseling, treatment and community programs rather than arrest after a first-time misdemeanor offense.

"I believe we can have a system that protects public safety but also protects these children's futures and their spirits," Walters, the first woman to lead the Department of Juvenile Justice, said in an interview.

The idea is to quickly identify the behaviors that are getting kids into trouble, address them and treat them by involving family, schools and the community. Not saddling kids with arrest records early on will hopefully keep them out of jails and prisons in the long run, said Walter, 57.

Since its inception in 2007, 8,000 youths — most of them minorities — have participated in the civil-citation program in Miami-Dade County.

In a 10-year period beginning in 1998, the civil citation program and other reforms led to a 51 percent reduction of juvenile arrests and decrease of 66 percent in juvenile detention.

But most telling, Walters says, was the 80 percent drop in re-arrests.

With an immediate per-child cost saving of $5,000 by avoiding arrests, net savings for Miami-Dade County has been calculated at $20.2 million a year. That program was lauded by the White House two years ago.

Violent juvenile offenders, she says, still would be dealt with firmly.

Roy Miller, president of The Children's Campaign, a Tallahassee-based child-advocacy and watchdog organization, said that despite his displeasure with Gov. Rick Scott's cuts of somewhere around $2 billion to K-12 public education, he is delighted by Walters' appointment and what it means for children.

"She brings with her a vision of reform that we support," Miller said. "I would call it progressive. I'd go that far."

When Scott, a Republican, tapped Walters, a Democrat, to lead the agency, he told her he wanted to "make it the best juvenile justice system in the United States." The agency in 2009-10

67 News Summary February 18 –March 4, 2011 supervised 75,382 juveniles either in secure lock-up or residential facilities, on probation or in prevention programs for high-risk offenders.

She's up for the challenge, she says, but "you cannot do that by thinking that you have to lock up every child that gets in trouble."

For too long, Walters says, the department has taken a correctional "tough love" approach rather than function as a therapeutic, prevention center.

A Georgia native who grew up in the Bradenton-Sarasota area, Walters earned a degree in speech communications from the University of South Florida. She moved to Miami in 1978, where she spent nearly 20 years working in administrative positions for the county and the Miami-Dade Police Department. In 1997, she became director of the department's juvenile assessment center, which in 2005 evolved into the juvenile services department.

In Broward County, 15 juvenile diversion programs are in place and the Sheriff's Office and various police agencies operate their own, varied forms of civil citation programs.

The effect is largely positive, said prosecutor Maria Schneider, head of the juvenile division for the Broward State Attorney's Office.

"It's a very holistic approach," Schneider said, noting that the youths discuss the impact of their behavior not only on the victims, but their families and communities. "I think that that is very important to help a kid not just realize the error of their ways right now, but to avoid committing similar acts in the future."

But, Schneider added: "Unfortunately we will always need detention centers for some youth."

Walters agrees.

"Many of the things I'm talking about are not applicable to dangerous felons," Walters said. "We are not willing to coddle any offender who is serious and dangerous. But we don't need to throw the rest of the kids under the bus trying to get to those."

Walters says she expects some push back from law enforcement and state attorneys. But the push to reduce the chances of juveniles ending up in prison as adults falls right in line with the philosophy of Ed Buss, Scott's newly appointed Department of Corrections secretary.

"We should always try to keep the juveniles closer to their communities, closer to their homes," Buss said in an interview. "They lose so much by being institutionalized. They lose access to culture, they lose access to their families, they lose access to their local school system. As long as they're not a threat to society, then keeping them at the local jurisdictions is absolutely the best practice."

Scott has repeatedly expressed his own enthusiasm for Walters' ideas.

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“I'm very optimistic about what she's going to do," Scott recently said. "It's about getting people out of the cycle … I think we have vision."

The bills proposing a statewide juvenile civil citation program are sponsored by Sen. Ronda Storms, R-Valrico (SB 1300) and Rep. Ray Pilon, R-Sarasota (HB 839).

Walters also advocates for using GPS bracelets to monitor misdemeanor offenders rather than placing them in residential programs and developing Juvenile Assessment Centers throughout the state as prevention centers to assess a child's treatment needs as opposed to arrest processing centers.

Although Scott proposes cutting the agency's $600 million budget by $108 million, his budget largely supports Walters' ideas. He has called for closing two under-utilized juvenile detention centers and wings at two others. He would use a portion of that savings — $10.4 million — for community-based services.

Scott has also allotted $4.6 million for the juvenile assessment centers and $2.2 million to expand juvenile electronic monitoring.

When a fifth-grader goes to jail Bill would increase detention age from 10 to 13 and promote alternatives for incarcerated kids Illinois Times By Holly Dillemuth March 3, 2011 http://www.illinoistimes.com/Springfield/article-8398-when-a-fifth-grader-goes-to-jail.html

Fifth-graders are better off learning fractions than serving hard time. With that in mind, Rep. Annazette Collins wants to know why there are fifth-graders in Illinois youth detention centers.

Collins, a Chicago Democrat, is chief sponsor to a bill that would keep children as young as 10 out of detention centers altogether. Her proposed legislation, introduced in Janaury, would boost the minimum age of youth in detention centers from 10 to 13.

Collins has toured the detention facility in Cook County, and believes that children as young as 10 and as old as 12 should not be exposed to a detention center for any length of time.

“What are we going to do with a fifth-grader in jail?” Collins says. “And so it just makes sense that we would use all our resources first before we even keep them in detention.”

The Illinois State Bar Association is also supporting juvenile detention reform this spring.

“We’re trying to raise the bar, raise the awareness that there’s a need, a rather urgent need for reform in the juvenile justice area,” says Mark D. Hassakis, president of the Illinois State Bar

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Association. The ISBA partners with the Illinois Bar Foundation, a “charitable arm” of the ISBA, to explore legal issues like those in juvenile justice.

Hassakis recently spent time touring Cook County’s detention center with Betsy Clark, president and founder of the Juvenile Justice Initiative. Hassakis promotes awareness of alternatives to incarceration for youth under the age of 18.

Collins reasons that youth as young as 10 should not be removed from their families. Children may be traumatized by the experience.

Under the bill, no minor can be held longer than 12 hours unless they’ve committed a criminal offense, and 12-year-olds can be placed in a detention center for up to 30 days.

“The10-year-olds can’t be there very long so we want to try and make it so they’re not there at all,” Collins says.

Terry Moore, assistant director of Sangamon County Court Services, has followed the bill. He says there are already measures in place to screen youth before they are placed in detention centers.

While an argument for the bill says children as young as 10 should not be exposed to detention centers, Moore says the other side is that most children that young are not admitted to detention centers, except for severe offenses.

Over the past five years, only 4 to 7 percent of children admitted to detention centers have been under the age of 13.

“It’s a very small number of youth relative to the total admitted,” Moore says.

Detention gives juvenile court the opportunity to look at the situation of each child and determine their best interest, he says, which sometimes may be short-term placement in a detention center.

Others like Ryan Williams, associate professor of criminal justice at University of Illinois Springfield, believe even a short-term stay may lead to a long-term problem.

“If you put a 10-year-old in a detention center for any significant length of time, that could damage their entire school year,” says Williams. He believes that time spent away from a traditional class setting can make for a difficult transition back into a regular school environment after being in a detention center.

Nearly 118 bills related to juvenile justice have been filed in the General Assembly during spring session, showing a heightened interest in issues related to children who break the law.

Delvin's bill addresses juveniles in justice system Tri-City Herald (WA) 70 News Summary February 18 –March 4, 2011

By John Trumbo March 4, 2011 http://www.tri-cityherald.com/2011/03/04/1392795/delvins-bill-addresses-juveniles.html

RICHLAND -- Youths with developmental disabilities who end up in juvenile detention aren't getting the help they need, said Sharon Paradis, Benton Franklin Juvenile Court administrator.

But state Sen. Jerome Delvin introduced a bill that would address the problem.

"By failing to properly classify juvenile defendants with developmental disabilities, we are putting both the child and correctional officers at risk of unnecessary harm," said Delvin, R-Richland, who is a former police officer.

The Senate unanimously passed bill SSB 5097 this week, and it has gone to the House.

As proposed, it would see a work group created at the state level to develop recommendations for the Legislature to provide alternatives in the juvenile justice system for dealing with developmentally disabled youths.

The bill could lead to changes regarding:

- Confinement in juvenile detention.

- Alternatives for the criminal justice system.

- Specialized training for law enforcement and correctional officers.

- Adopting a method for screening to identify juveniles with the most common types of developmental disabilities.

"It's a statewide issue," said Paradis, who spent a year studying the problem before asking for Delvin's help.

Paradis said she first learned of the issue at a Washington Developmental Disabilities Council meeting.

"There's not a lot of opportunities up front to identify those youth (who end up being taken into custody for serious offenses)," she said.

There is a process for identifying youths with mental health issues, but not for those who are developmentally disabled, Paradis said. Eventually, a psychological evaluation finds they are incompetent to stand trial, and then they are released without treatment.

Frequently, they reoffend and go back into custody, only to cycle through again without getting help.

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"That was alarming to me," she said.

"We need to have the right people at the table to talking about the issue, what the resources are, what is missing and the alternatives for the court," Paradis said.

Delvin said he is encouraged that his bill sailed through the Senate, and is hopeful it will do well as it wends through several House committees.

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