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Pennsylvania Railroad
In the Keystone State's juvenile justice scandal, money changed everything.

Mark Ciavarella, the Pennsylvania judge known as "Mr. Zero Tolerance," had a reputation for running his courtroom like an assembly line, spending just a minute or two on each of the juvenile offenders who appeared before him. If they were not represented by lawyers, which was usually the case, they would more often than not be shipped off in shackles to some form of detention, even for trivial crimes.

Aside from defendants and their parents, few people seemed concerned about Ciavarella's mindlessly tough attitude—until it turned out he was receiving kickbacks from the private detention centers where he sent juvenile offenders. But for those suspicious payments, Ciavarella, who was convicted last week of racketeering and related charges, might still be practicing his special brand of injustice, which he and his supporters said helped kids by hurting them.

Federal prosecutors say Ciavarella and Michael Conahan, at the time Luzerne County's president judge, conspired to replace the county's dilapidated juvenile detention center with new ones built and operated by their cronies. Conahan, who pleaded guilty to racketeering last year, arranged for the centers to get the county's business, while Ciavarella kept them full. In exchange, they received $2.9 million....

Kids for Cash judge Ciavarella called scumbag by grieving mom
...The former judge, who has been released on a $1 million unsecured bond, left the courtroom smiling but met with an awkward situation when Sandy Fonzo, the mother of one of the teenage offenders he had sentenced, burst out and blamed him for ruining her son's life.

"My kid's not here anymore!" Fonzo screamed at Ciavarella in the presence of dozens of people. "He's dead! Because of him! He ruined my **** life! I'd like him to go to hell and rot there forever! Do you remember me? Do you remember me? Do you remember my son, an all-star wrestler? He's gone. He shot himself in the heart. You scumbag!"

Fonzo's son, Edward, was 17 and an all-star wrestler with a chance at a college scholarship at the time he landed in Ciavarella's courtroom on a minor drug charge. Though Edward had no prior criminal record, Ciavarella sentenced him to juvenile detention center for several months. As a result, Edward missed his senior year of high school and grew depressed and bitter. Last June, he committed suicide, at the age of 23.

"He (Edward) was just never the same. He couldn't recover," Fonzo later told the reporters. "He wanted to go on with his life, but he was just hurt. He was affected so deeply, more than anyone knew."

However, Ciavarella kept a poker face and ignored Fonzo. He also told the reporters who surrounded him that he didn't know what Fonzo was speaking about. "I don't know that lady," he told the reporters. "I don't know what the facts and circumstances are concerning her son."...