Will Grigg?s Liberty Minute

January 4, 2010

The story plays like something out of the darkest chapters of Dickens. For years, a criminal syndicate entrenched in Pennsylvania?s Luzerne County Court needlessly imprisoned thousands of youth for profit. Judge Mark A. Ciaverella and his cohort, Judge Michael T. Conahan, allegedly received at least $2.8 million in kick-backs for sending youngsters to a privately run detention center.

Young defendants were coerced into signing forms waiving their right to counsel and then brow-beaten into guilty pleas by Judge Ciaverella.

He also established a special court to imprison children until their parents could pay fines. In one instance, an 11-year-old boy who was barely four feet tall and weighed 63 pounds was dragged away in handcuffs and shackles when his parents couldn?t pay a $488 fine.

Although the judges face criminal charges, they are protected from civil lawsuits by the principle of judicial immunity. Institutional privileges of that sort do not protect the public or the rule of law, but rather provide shelter for corruption.

Let us take back the liberty wherewith Christ has made us free.