Reply #22: Phila. Inquirer Column

[JPZenger]

http://www.philly.com/philly/news/local/41137792.html

By Daniel Rubin

Inquirer Columnist

"... where the state average for detention ranged between 8 and 10 percent, in Luzerne unrepresented kids were incarcerated around 60 percent of the time... So Juvenile Law Center attorneys asked the Pennsylvania Supreme Court to intervene, citing the case's extraordinary circumstances and extreme public interest. That was in April 2008. The state Attorney General and the Department of Public Welfare filed briefs supporting the Juvenile Law Center's position. Months went by.Hearing nothing, the law center made its case again in December, stating that the court needed to take jurisdiction because hundreds of children could have trouble getting into schools, obtaining financial aid, and being hired, all because of their tainted convictions.

Finally, on Jan. 8, in a one-sentence and unsigned opinion, the Supreme Court refused to take responsibility for the case.Three weeks later, the feds held a press conference: Ciavarella and Judge Michael T. Conahan had agreed to seven-year prison sentences for taking $2.6 million in kickbacks from the owners of private facilities. And one week after that, the Supreme Court issued its own news release, at last claiming jurisdiction and assigning a senior judge from Berks County to review thousands of cases that Ciavarella had heard.

How many children might have been spared the humiliation and denial of due process if the state Supreme Court had acted swiftly? ... Weren't the numbers the Juvenile Law Center cited damning?"