3 Months in Juvie For a MySpace Joke? For-Profit Prison Industry Locks Up More Each Year

[G_j]

http://www.alternet.org/story/151540/3_months_in_juvie_for_a_myspace_joke_how_the_for-profit_prison_industry_locks_up_more_people_each_year/


TruthOut.org / By Willam Fisher

3 Months in Juvie For a MySpace Joke? How the For-Profit Prison Industry Locks Up More People Each Year
Private prisons are marked by corruption, expense, abuses--and yet their reach is vast, and it's growing.

Seventeen-year-old Hillary Transue did what lots of 17-year-olds do: Got into mischief. Hillary's mischief was composing a MySpace page poking fun at the assistant principal of the high school she attended in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania. Hillary was an honor student who'd never had any trouble with the law before. And her MySpace page stated clearly that the page was a joke. But despite all that, Hilary found herself charged with harassment. She stood before a judge and heard him sentence her to three months in a juvenile detention facility.

What she expected was perhaps a stern lecture. What she got was a perp walk - being led away in handcuffs as her stunned parents stood by helplessly. Hillary told The New York Times, "I felt like I had been thrown into some surreal sort of nightmare. All I wanted to know was how this could be fair and why the judge would do such a thing."

It wasn't until two years later that she found out why. In Scranton, Pennsylvania, two judges pleaded guilty to operating a kickback scheme involving juvenile offenders. The judges, Mark Ciavarella Jr. and Michael Conahan, took more than $2.6 million in kickbacks from a private prison company to send teenagers to two privately run youth detention centers. Since 2003, Ciaverella had sentenced an estimated 5,000 juveniles. Conahan was accused of setting up the contracts. Many of the youngsters shipped off to the detention centers were first-time offenders.

PA Child Care is a juvenile detention center in Pittston Township, Pennsylvania. It was opened in February 2003. It has a sister company, Western PA Child Care, in Butler County, Pennsylvania. Treatment at both facilities is provided by Mid Atlantic Youth Services. Gregory Zappala took sole ownership of the company when he purchased co-owner Robert Powell's share in June 2008.



..more..

[seabeyond]

1. she knew it was wrong, expected punishment and did it anyway. meh. nt

[Name removed]

4. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[Commie Pinko Dirtbag]

7. +1.

Will be deleted but is factually correct.

[Hawkowl]

10. Sometimes

You have to take the delete because it is simply morally wrong to allow such comments to go unanswered.

[RZM]

16. I don't fully agree with the poster you are responding to

But your post is far, far worse. You are leveling an inaccurate smear and breaking the rules simply because another poster expressed an opinion that differs from your own. Shame.

[Name removed]

20. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[villager]

22. so they can waylay any serious discussion of the actual issue at hand...

n/t

[seabeyond]

24. i am a disruptor because i believe our teens are more than "just a teen" and capable of being

responsible. and knowing they are doing something wrong, chosing to do it, and then mad because consequence is more than what they want to pay

makes me a disruptor?

[rhett o rick]

25. So you believe that no punishment is to strong for a crime, no matter how small

Are you Nancy Grace?

[seabeyond]

27. i did not read further after .... just a teen and i knew i would be punished, BUT

i am impatient with that whine

[rhett o rick]

30. If you look at the thread, almost everyone is responding to you and not the OP.

That's disruption in my book. Write your own OP.

[seabeyond]

31. nt

[villager]

65. No, she is Javert...

n/t

[rhett o rick]

28. Your response missed the point of the OP. People are being punished, not to change their behavior

but for profits of the Republicans. You tried to change the focus of the OP.

[seabeyond]

33. edited. got to the update message. nt

[JonLP24]

29. The consequence is a result of bribe

It is so unbelievable to read that someone doesn't have a problem with a punishment that was a result from a judge getting bribe. Another thing that is unbelievable is it is 3-month sentence over a Myspace page. I'm not a teen but if I made fun of Skinner on my Myspace page and he found out about it I would be banned, that's it. I would never be in fucking court over it.

[seabeyond]

34. repeating.... i stopped reading at, just a teen, and i knew i would be in trouble BUT

i did not read about the corruption. i am impatient with excusing.

[Pithlet]

52. I'm sorry. But that's still nuts.

So it's a teen. That means no punishment is too harsh? Not getting it.

[seabeyond]

53. mischief, poking fun, a joke. do you know what the myspace was?

i dont. just being a teen.

whatever it was, and i looked 3 pgs into the story and there is nothing there, just about the corruption showing the story is all about that, this teens mischief, joke, poking fun was offensive enough, mean spirited, ugly??? that she knew she was going to get in trouble for it. offensive enough that someone reported it, maybe the one being "poked fun" at.

i dont often discuss the penalties we should apply to behavior because i dont know.

my issue is the dismissiveness of what the teen did knowingly and then using excuses such as just a joke, and just a teen.

that is what i am addressing or was. that is why i stopped at that point.

we have seen bullying on the net, and heavy duty repercussions.... where one would say, just being boys, a joke. and end in a death.

i have no way of knowing how offensive this joke was.... nor does anyone else. they made light of it to draw attention to the issue, judicial corruption.

the 17 yr old knew what she was doing was wrong. and chose to do it anyway.

punishment fit the crime? not really something i put thought into. i was more bothered with the poor little girl, just being a teen making a joke.... at anothers expense.

[Pithlet]

54. Well, I don't make a habit of endorsing punishments when I don't even know what the crime was.

That hardly makes sense, even if you believe in the half baked notion that teens are the same as adults, which I don't. :shrug:

[seabeyond]

67. meh... is hardly an endorsement. but this is where my issue is

17, she is not capable of grasping being ugly to another? beyond her? i would think not. she clarified a joke and knew she would get in trouble. her poking at, had to be severe enough, in her own mind, to make those two statements.

you would prefer to shrug and say teen.

i dont do that.

is that endorsing punishment? i already clarified, though you ignored the intent of the post.

[AlabamaLibrul]

55. (people are impatient with you jumping down their throats when you don't read articles. repeatedly.)

n/t

[seabeyond]

63. she knew it was wrong, expected punishment and did it anyway. meh.

you define that as "jumping down their throats"?

really?

hm

[Luminous Animal]

37. Prison for a prank My Space page? The teen should never have been brought up on charges.

Fuck the police state.

[boppers]

60. Not prison. Juvie.

Totally different thing.

[Pithlet]

61. Oh well, then. Never mind.

:sarcasm:

[boppers]

62. Facts matter. eom

[Commie Pinko Dirtbag]

47. I get you, bro.

:thumbsup:

[Luminous Animal]

12. +2

[seabeyond]

23. a nazi? if that is your conclusion what does any kind of intellectual discussion back and forth do

and what does that make you, lol.

nazi.

bah hahah

[JonLP24]

5. So the fraud doesn't bother you?

[Commie Pinko Dirtbag]

6. Wow.

Juat wow.

[Gidney N Cloyd]

11. ...

:wow: :wow: :wow: :wow: :wow: :wow: :wow: :wow: :wow: :wow: :wow: :wow: :wow:

[NashVegas]

13. That Doesn't Excuse Being Sent to Prison for Profit

The punishment should fit the crime.

[Angry Dragon]

14. -1000

[ret5hd]

15. uhhh...wow.

you are dead to me.

[NeedleCast]

17. Come On Now

Your kids have NEVER pulled a prank on someone? Not ever? Never performed a slightly michevous joke?

I mean, I hear you reference your boys on DU a lot. From what you've said, they're very well behaved and mannered young men but I have a hard time believing they've NEVER pulled a prank or been involved in a practical joke.

Do you really think one of them should go to prison for three months over a joke that didn't hurt anyone?

But lets take this one step further. Lets play a little what if. What if one of your boys egged a house, or TP'ed a house and got caught. Wouldn't you rather be under the assumption that the judge standing over the case wsa going to make a punishment decision based on what fit the crime, and NOT how much money he/she was going to get for unjustly sending your child to juviee or prison?

[Hassin Bin Sober]

59. "From what you've said, they're very well behaved "

Somehow I doubt that from a borderline illiterate punishment fetishist.

[seabeyond]

66. Somehow I doubt that from a borderline illiterate punishment fetishist.

what you won't find my children doing is responding to another in this manner. even in disagreement. they simply are not this immature, even at 13.

which is kinda my issue with the dismissal of this 17 yr old feeling the right to "poke fun" at another without repercussion. a society of crass and ugly without civility.

when the kids play these jokes and the repercussion is suicide there is outrage with the bullying. but because this article diminishes the serverity of her actions to stress the corruption of the justices, people conveniently overlook it to then be outraged where they are pointed towards.

[Hassin Bin Sober]

68. Yes, because there is an epidemic of Principals committing suicide over being harpooned on myspace.

Admit it. Fess up. You are OK with jail time for this kid's myspace page.


You should look up "bullying" in the dictionary.

[seabeyond]

69. whoooosh, right over your head. nt

[Hassin Bin Sober]

70. LOL. From someone not literate enough to figure out the OP.

You had a point?

[rhett o rick]

18. You are just trying to start a fight with that RW kinda talk. nm

[CoffeeCat]

19. But three months locked up for expressing an opinion???

Surely, you are mistaken.

It's been proven that this judge was corrupt and had been taking kickbacks in order to
sentence children, when they didn't deserve it.

How in the hell can anyone justify this...at all?

That's f'n scary.

[piedmont]

21. If you're ok with 3 months prison for a Myspace spoof page and judicial bribery by the prison...

then I have to ask: are you SURE you're a progressive?

[seabeyond]

26. UPDATE.... my bad. really, i stopped reading after i knew i would be punished BUT

went back and re read the part of judicial corruption.

[rhett o rick]

32. Thanks. Cant say I havent done the same. nm

[ljm2002]

39. Good for you!

Thanks for going back and reading it... The story was really about judicial corruption, and the for-profit prison system.

It's rare to see someone acknowledge an error rather than digging in their heels, so again, I say Good for you!

[Commie Pinko Dirtbag]

Hum.

[hatrack]

40. Next time, read the whole article before you post something similarly stupid.

nt

[Name removed]

42. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[Commie Pinko Dirtbag]

44. You can't spell ''correct assessment'' without ''ass.''

[hatrack]

45. Congratulations, you apparently read the whole post.

Nice work!

[shoutinfreud]

50. Are you a fucking idiot? Three months for a myspace page?

Everyone involved in this should be thrown in prison and stripped of their positions.

[Name removed]

56. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[_ed_]

71. Stupidest fucking thing I've read in months

Just staggering, monumental ignorance of the article itself, the surrounding judicial corruption, and our legal system in general.

3 months for a myspace joke? I suppose we should cut off the legs of jaywalkers, right? Death penalty for speeding?

[distantearlywarning]

72. Disgusting. Shame on you.

I wish I were surprised anymore by the horrible things people post on DU, but I'm not. File this one with "why the fuck are you on a progressive website if you believe such things????"

[Uncle Joe]

2. In keeping with the spirit of your avatar,

it seems the for profit prison industry is a racket as well.

Thanks for the thread, G_j.

[G_j]

8. we have the MIC & the PIC

and a few more giant parasitic monsters

[Uncle Joe]

35. And the stronger the for profit prison industry becomes, the more resources

allowed to them for bribing/lobbying politicians and judges to pass ridiculous, unjust laws or to give draconian sentences having nothing to with the severity of the crime, government can only become more corrupt and disconnected from the use of such a system.

I'm just amazed that more people can't make the connection on how totally destructive and dysfunctional a for profit prison system is to a free society!:shrug:

[LeftinOH]

3. I believe that facility was featured in Michael Moore's 'Capitalism, a Love Story'.

It's a private detention facility, and there is profit to be made with each person locked up.

[Newest Reality]

9. The American Indians

made decisions unto the seventh generation. They thought long-term.

Welcome to your very own America Inc.: Fast-tracking our children, (and adults) into a profitable, punitive system.

Statistically, we are Prisoner's R Us. Those who find that uncomfortable will paint another layer on their bubble of delusion and ... back to our regularly scheduled, manufactured reality. There is one thing we still make here.

Nobody is knocking on your door ... yet.

[felix_numinous]

36. The American Gulag is inventing ways to increase profits.

The MIC/PIC want a generation of medicated zombies brainwashed on the new revisionist 'education'. Convert or --let the punishments begin.

I hope I live long enough to witness the revolution that is coming.

[brooklynite]

38. Unrec'd

Please describe the known link between judicial rulings in criminal cases and for-profit prisons.

[Fumesucker]

43. It was in the OP..

In Scranton, Pennsylvania, two judges pleaded guilty to operating a kickback scheme involving juvenile offenders. The judges, Mark Ciavarella Jr. and Michael Conahan, took more than $2.6 million in kickbacks from a private prison company to send teenagers to two privately run youth detention centers. Since 2003, Ciaverella had sentenced an estimated 5,000 juveniles. Conahan was accused of setting up the contracts. Many of the youngsters shipped off to the detention centers were first-time offenders.

[Commie Pinko Dirtbag]

46. Ooops, thanks for reminding me. I almost forgot to recommend. -nt

[MrScorpio]

41. The Kochs have their dirty fingers in this pie as well

"For example, it claims, the Reason Foundation, a strong proponent of prison privatization, has received funding from private prison firms. The American Correctional Association (ACA) receives sponsorship money from CCA, GEO, and other private prison companies for its biannual conferences."

http://www.alternet.org/story/151540/3_months_in_juvie_for_a_myspace_joke_how_the_for-profit_prison_industry_locks_up_more_people_each_year?page=2

Surprise, surprise, surprise.

[bananas]

48. This is kidnapping - the judges and prison officials conspired to kidnap these kids. nt

[bananas]

49. This is kidnapping - the judges and prison officials conspired to kidnap these kids. nt

[WilmywoodNCparalegal]

51. There was a Law & Order: SVU episode about just that

where they finally figured out the judge was up to something like this. In the end, the SVU squad conducts a mock trial and she falls into their trap. She was getting kickbacks from a facility in some other state and was colluding with a clerk of court.

[backscatter712]

57. Those judges should be drawn and quartered for what they did. n/t

[Danger Mouse]

58. God bless America!

[Matariki]

64. ARRRRGGGHH! Some days you just feel like screaming.

And it seems those days are coming at increasingly frequent intervals.

We REALLY need to do something about the creeping fascism overtaking this country. Before it's too late.