# Oh, FFS, this guy should have gotten life **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [June 4, 2013, 1:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oh-ffs-this-guy-should-have-gotten-life/660085 "2013-06-04T01:09:20Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 12\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Clothahump](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/51bf81/32.png) [@Clothahump](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Clothahump)\ **Post date:** [June 6, 2013, 12:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oh-ffs-this-guy-should-have-gotten-life/660085/21 "2013-06-06T00:50:04Z")
> [@For You](#): > > Why did this slimeball not get life? He should have his thumbs pulled off and other nasty stuff. (And anyone who is willing to defend privatization, prepare to get dumped on bigtime.) From his picture, he appears old enough to where a 28 year sentence pretty much is life. ---
**Author:** ![Typo\_Negative](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/typo_negative/32/484_2.png) [@Typo\_Negative](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Typo_Negative)\ **Post date:** [June 6, 2013, 2:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oh-ffs-this-guy-should-have-gotten-life/660085/22 "2013-06-06T02:18:17Z")
> [@silenus](#): > > Well, he’ll effectively be in solitary for the entire time, so I doubt he ever gets out. He will be segregated in protective custody. Not the same thing. ---
**Author:** ![Dag\_Otto](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/439d5e/32.png) [@Dag\_Otto](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dag_Otto)\ **Post date:** [June 6, 2013, 2:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oh-ffs-this-guy-should-have-gotten-life/660085/23 "2013-06-06T02:43:20Z")
> [@RTFirefly](#): > > What I want to know is, will his co-conspirators in the employ of the private prisons get prison time as well? > > They damned well better. Their money was driving this; while the judge deserved what he got, he was basically a high-class errand boy for the prison corporations. [Not enough, IMO](http://www.allgov.com/news/controversies/judge-sentenced-to-28-years-in-prison-for-selling-kids-to-private-prisons?news=843116). This story seems to be a couple of years old, not sure why it is resurfacing in the news. > [@](#): > > Update: Many people reading this article have asked what happened to the other people involved in this case. Judge Michael T. Conahan is currently serving a 17½- year sentence at the Federal Correctional Complex, Coleman in Sumter County Florida. Robert J. Powell, co-owner of the two juvenile detention centers, pleaded guilty to paying kickbacks to Ciavarella and Conahan and served 18 months in prison before being released on April 16, 2013. Robert K. Mericle, the wealthy builder and co-owner of two private detention centers, has not yet been sentenced, but in November 2012, he agreed to a cash settlement that would distribute $12.2 million to 1,066 of the juveniles who were incarcerated and 548 of their parents. > [@](#): > > Among the young people exploited by Ciavarella were 15-year-old Hillary Transue, who was sentenced to three months at a juvenile detention center for mocking an assistant principal on a MySpace page; and 13-year-old Shane Bly, who was sent to a boot camp for two weekends after being accused of trespassing in a vacant building. ---
**Author:** ![Grumman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/43a26b/32.png) [@Grumman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Grumman)\ **Post date:** [June 6, 2013, 5:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oh-ffs-this-guy-should-have-gotten-life/660085/24 "2013-06-06T05:53:13Z")
He should have been taken out the back and shot, like any other slaver. ---
**Author:** ![Azeotrope](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/0ea827/32.png) [@Azeotrope](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Azeotrope)\ **Post date:** [June 6, 2013, 1:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oh-ffs-this-guy-should-have-gotten-life/660085/25 "2013-06-06T13:51:08Z")
For the whole sordid story, it has a [Wikipedia page.](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kids_for_cash) I’ve met Mark Ciavarella, and as slimy as he looks on the news, he’s 11 times worse in person. Smarmy, arrogant, scheming son of a bitch. > [@Tom\_Tildrum](#): > > Keep in mind that this crime only succeeded because the system was an authoritarian’s dream. The local government gave Ciavarella unreviewable authority to close the public prison and to create a juvenile justice system with no attorneys and no appeals. No libertarian is going to defend corrupt, unchecked governmental authority of this sort. It’s not that they let him do it, it’s more that no one was willing to challenge him on it for fear of retaliation, and the other Good Ol’ Boys wouldn’t because they were in on it too. Anyway, Luzerne County government has been turned on its head. A couple other judges who were implicated stepped down, one of the sitting county commisioners was sent up the river, and a bunch of people from the former clerk of courts to a sheriff’s deputy who got drafted to run envelopes full of cash back and forth are in hot water. It’s the main reason why the voters voted to switch from the three-commisioner system to a home rule system with an 11 member council, (which had been tried before back in the 90s with no success) and there’s a lot more transparency. Last year’s elections were basically a “where was Candidate X during ‘Kids for Cash’??? Well???” bitchfest. And public distrust of county government has never been higher around here. > [@RTFirefly](#): > > They damned well better. Their money was driving this; while the judge deserved what he got, he was basically a high-class errand boy for the prison corporations. Hardly. I don’t know whether he or Mericle came up with the idea, but he was at the top of the food chain from the start. ---
**Author:** ![Steophan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/steophan/32/9595_2.png) [@Steophan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Steophan)\ **Post date:** [June 6, 2013, 3:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oh-ffs-this-guy-should-have-gotten-life/660085/26 "2013-06-06T15:19:35Z")
Anyone saying he should be killed in jail, or executed, or kept in solitary is a worse threat to justice than he was. Which does not mean I’m defending his actions. ---
**Author:** ![RTFirefly](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/c77e96/32.png) [@RTFirefly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RTFirefly)\ **Post date:** [June 6, 2013, 3:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oh-ffs-this-guy-should-have-gotten-life/660085/27 "2013-06-06T15:48:09Z")
> [@Steophan](#): > > Anyone saying he should be killed in jail, or executed, or kept in solitary is a worse threat to justice than he was. And you’re a fucking retard who doesn’t understand the difference between making a value judgment, and being in a position to implement that value judgment in a manner that’s an abuse of that power. Seriously, do you have a functioning brain? And what box do you keep it in while you’re posting on the Dope? ---
**Author:** ![Steophan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/steophan/32/9595_2.png) [@Steophan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Steophan)\ **Post date:** [June 6, 2013, 4:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oh-ffs-this-guy-should-have-gotten-life/660085/28 "2013-06-06T16:00:07Z")
Yes, I know what a value judgement is, and I’m making one. My judgement is that anyone who supports the death penalty, or vigilante murder, even in theory, is a greater threat to justice that this judge was - even if they don’t have the power to implement it. Of course, living in a democracy, they _do_ have that power, so it’s a moot point. You poltroon. ---
**Author:** ![silenus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/silenus/32/166_2.png) [@silenus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/silenus)\ **Post date:** [June 6, 2013, 4:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oh-ffs-this-guy-should-have-gotten-life/660085/29 "2013-06-06T16:03:28Z")
Do I have to watch out for Batman, now that I’m such a “great threat to justice?” ---
**Author:** ![Steophan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/steophan/32/9595_2.png) [@Steophan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Steophan)\ **Post date:** [June 6, 2013, 4:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oh-ffs-this-guy-should-have-gotten-life/660085/30 "2013-06-06T16:12:18Z")
> [@silenus](#): > > Do I have to watch out for Batman, now that I’m such a “great threat to justice?” No, he’d be on the side of extra-judicial killing. Which is fine in fantasy, less so in the real world. ---
**Author:** ![Grumman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/43a26b/32.png) [@Grumman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Grumman)\ **Post date:** [June 6, 2013, 4:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oh-ffs-this-guy-should-have-gotten-life/660085/31 "2013-06-06T16:25:29Z")
> [@Steophan](#): > > Anyone saying he should be killed in jail, or executed, or kept in solitary is a worse threat to justice than he was. > > Which does not mean I’m defending his actions. Of course it does, you dumb bastard. You’re trying to pretend that a government official _who sells innocent children into slavery_ is less unjust than merely _saying_ that said slavery should carry the death penalty. ---
**Author:** ![RTFirefly](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/c77e96/32.png) [@RTFirefly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RTFirefly)\ **Post date:** [June 6, 2013, 4:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oh-ffs-this-guy-should-have-gotten-life/660085/32 "2013-06-06T16:26:42Z")
> [@Steophan](#): > > My judgement is that anyone who supports the death penalty…is a greater threat to justice that this judge was Maybe you’ve noticed that both the Federal government and the vast majority of states have the death penalty. So what you’re saying is that **our existing system of justice, in its normal operation,** is a far greater threat to justice than this judge was. Yep, you’re a fucking idiot. Not to mention so far out there that you probably confuse Glenn Greenwald with Joe Lieberman. I also was impressed by the blithering stupidity of this part: > [@Steophan](#): > > even if [anyone who supports the death penalty] do[es]n’t have the power to implement it. Of course, living in a democracy, they _do_ have that power, so it’s a moot point. Let’s see: because we’re in a democracy, anyone who supports the death penalty has the power to implement it. If you passed high school civics, they must’ve graded on one hell of a curve. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oh-ffs-this-guy-should-have-gotten-life/660085.md?page=1)