Jailed kids-for-cash judge loses bid for COVID release

WILKES-BARRE, PA. » A disgraced Pennsylvania judge who locked up thousands of juvenile offenders while he was taking kickbacks from the owner and builder of forprofit detention centers has lost his bid to be released from prison because of the coronavirus pandemic.

Mark Ciavarella, a former Luzerne County juvenile court judge, had requested compassionate release from a federal lockup in Kentucky. The 70-yearold cited his age, his underlying medical conditions that put him at heightened risk of serious illness from COVID-19, and the virus outbreaks that have swept through the prison.

U.S. District Judge Christopher C. Conner ruled this week that Ciavarella, who is serving a 28-year prison sentence, should remain behind bars even though he “arguably established extraordinary and compelling reasons for compassionate release.”

Ciavarella “continues to understate the seriousness of his offense conduct,” Conner wrote, and “persists in downplaying the overall criminal scheme and his role in it.”

He noted Ciavarella has served less than half of his sentence.

In what came to be known as the kids-for-cash scandal, Ciavarella and another judge, Michael Conahan, shut down a countyrun juvenile detention center and accepted $2.8 million in illegal payments from the builder and co-owner of two forprofit lockups. Ciavarella, who presided over juvenile court, pushed a zero-tolerance policy that guaranteed large numbers of kids would be sent to PA Child Care and its sister facility, Western PA Child Care.