Privatization gone bad

Posted at 9:06 AM on March 7, 2009 by Bob Collins (10 Comments)
Filed under: Crime and Justice

In Pennsylvania, judges have been getting kickbacks from the builder of a private detention. All they had to do was violate the rights of children by sending them there. And they had no problem doing so, apparently, the Guardian reports:

Less than a minute into the hearing the gavel came down. "Adjudicated delinquent!" the judge proclaimed, and sentenced her to three months in a juvenile detention centre. Hillary, who hadn't even presented her side of the story, was handcuffed and led away. But her mother, Laurene, protested to the local law centre, setting in train a process that would uncover one of the most egregious violations of children's rights in US legal history.

Last month the judge involved, Mark Ciavarella, and the presiding judge of the juvenile court, Michael Conahan, pleaded guilty to having accepted $2.6m (£1.8m) from the co-owner and builder of a private detention centre where children aged from 10 to 17 were locked up.

The cases of up to 2,000 children put into custody by Ciavarella over the past seven years - including that of Transue - are now being reviewed in a billowing scandal dubbed "kids for cash". The alleged racket has raised questions about the cosy ties between the courts and private contractors, and about the harsh treatment meted out to adolescents.

If it's possible to have a facet of this case be even more troubling, however, it's got to be the reaction of authorities when an advocacy organization -- the Juvenile Law Center -- tried to get them to do something about it. "It was not a matter of immediate public importance," the Luverne County District Attorney wrote.

Tara Herivel, who authored "Prison Profiteers," blames the growing emphasis on privatization.

Although juvenile crime has been on the decline for at least a decade, private youth detention is still a growth industry. It grew by about 45 percent over the past 10 years and produced an average of $33 billion in annual profit. In New Mexico, the population of juveniles in private facilities rose by a stunning 123 percent, in contrast with an overall decline in juvenile crime and public detention.

Update 3/8 - Sunday's Phildelphia Inquirer follows up with some of the victims of the corruption.

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Comments (10)

The anecdotal article hardly justifies your assessment but supports your opinion and need to be political. If the detention center in this case was gov't run, its budget would have been increased and probably no one in jail because they would have figured out a way to launder the funds. Was the article supposed to be news? If so, where did you obtain a journalism dgree? I will make sure not to send my son there. If you want to see corruption on a really large scale, just look at all the graft and quid pro quo payoffs in government itself. Trillions directed and misdirected, legal and illegal and too much wasted.

I quit supporting MPR and its "advertisers" long ago and more recently the Star Tribune because journalism is dead, especially to operations like yours. Propagating your political position is expected and obvious. Finding the truth is an extremely difficult task these days, to which you apparently aren't up to performing. At best you found found some criminals. The real corruption is in "payoff" politics - see Barney Frank, Christopher Dodd and Fannie Mae/Freddie Mac connection, et al.

Posted by John Caye | March 7, 2009 10:03 AM

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The New York Times' Dead Journalism Edition covered this last month.

And golly, Bob, stop being so blatantly political, will you?

Posted by Charlie Quimby | March 7, 2009 1:35 PM

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Privatization has not been the panacea of saving and efficiency it was supposed to be. The truth is that the private sector is not necessarily more efficient than the public sector. Since no one bothered to actually ask how inefficient the government was in the first place the whole enterprise was based on faith rather than factual analysis. In many cases privatization ends up costing more for less service. The data on this is not limited or merely anecdotal there is now over a decade of data demonstrating that we've wasted trillions and diminished services- think Katrina.

The was not purely Republican deal by the way, neo-liberal economists were all over this like a cheap suit. Al Gore launched the largest privatization of federal services in history with his "re-inventing government" scheme.

Let's hope this facet of the Great Stupid is passing into history.

Posted by Paul | March 7, 2009 2:35 PM

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// Was the article supposed to be news? If so, where did you obtain a journalism dgree? I will make sure not to send my son there. If you want to see corruption on a really large scale, just look at all the graft and quid pro quo payoffs in government itself. Trillions directed and misdirected, legal and illegal and too much wasted.

I have absolutely no idea what you're getting at, John. Perhaps it's because you came out firing with insults. Do you talk with people like that face to face?

Look, this is a place where people who disagree have conversations without name calling. Can we try discussing it like adults and maybe we can have a productive conversation.

Posted by Bob Collins | March 7, 2009 3:38 PM

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I thought this was excellent blogging/reporting, Bob. I, too, have no idea what John was getting at. You were reporting on other people's reporting, and I might add it must have been foreign reporting to boot (BBC, CBC?) which often seems more objective than our media. I certainly did not sense a political agenda, at least.
The prison and detention facility industry in this country are a huge business, and the incarceration rate here in the 'land of the free' is outlandish, if not straight out racist as well. We have approximately 5% of the world's population, but about 25% of the world's incarcerated. And I agree with Paul that it is not just a republican thing regarding this as well, in that privatization of prisons reached it's height under Clinton. Our judicial system is supposed to be the last defense against politicized agendas, and they obviously failed here. I expect politicians to be swayed by lobbyists (unfortunately), but for judges to be bribed by industry is just sad. Thanks for the eye opening, I suppose. How are we committing less crime while our prisons continue to get full? Many in prison are clinically insane, and even more commit non-violent crimes. It's a crazy world, eh?
p.s. I still support MPR

Posted by Ben | March 8, 2009 4:34 AM

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I see now the article was from the UK - the Gaurdian's Ed Pilkington - actually their NY correspondent - I wonder where he got his journalism degree?

Posted by Ben | March 8, 2009 5:05 AM

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Actually, the failure of privatization is one of the great under reported stories of the decade. It would be nice if consensus media looked at other areas. The experience with the privatized function of the Immigration Service is incredible. Locally, how well has the privatization of driver license renewals gone, or even what has and has not been privatized? That HOV lane on 394, that's another story. The problem is you have to actually dig on these stories, you can't just accept the press releases you get from the agencies. They always say it been a great success so you have really get the numbers.

By the way, I've found that frequently the best reporting on US stories can be found overseas, in the British or European media so I wouldn't disparage the Brits or question their credentials. The fact that they cover these stories that our media ignores tells you something about our media. The BBCs coverage or our economy has been consistently more insightful and accurate as well.

Posted by Paul | March 8, 2009 10:42 AM

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Remember the private prison they built out around Worthington in the '90s. They had to import prisoners from Puerto Rico.

Posted by Bob Collind | March 8, 2009 12:07 PM

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By the way, Amy Goodman did 10-15 minutes on this story on Democracy Now! a couple weeks ago, so it wasn't the Brits who picked up on this.

Posted by Paul | March 8, 2009 1:16 PM

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As near as I can tell, it was the Legal Intelligencer that was most on top of the story.

Posted by Bob Collins | March 8, 2009 4:25 PM

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