[GPCA Updates] RELEASE Pa. Greens seek action against judicial corruption after juvenile detention scandal

[Green Party of California Updates]

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GREEN PARTY OF PENNSYLVANIA
http://www.gpofpa.org

Attention: News Editor
For Immediate Release

Contact:
Hillary Kane, 267-971-3559
Tim Reim, 814-838-1193
Carl Romanelli 570-574-0829


Green Party Condemns Judicial Corruption

• Green leaders call into question the privatization of essential public
services creating opportunities for corruption

• Green Party urges local governments to ban private management of
public responsibilities such as juvenile detention


White-hot outrage cannot adequately describe Green reaction to
revelations of children unjustly sent to PA juvenile detention centers
on the orders of corrupt local judges.

Two Pennsylvania judges have pleaded guilty to earning millions by
wrongfully sending teenagers to privately-run youth detention centers.

Prosecutors say Luzerne County Judges Mark Ciavarella and Michael
Conahan took $2.6 million in payoffs to place juvenile offenders in a
situation in which personal greed fed by corporate excess turned people
into profit.

“This calls to the very question of the value of the civil rights of the
individual children wrongfully removed from their homes to appease the
‘predatory capitalism’ conducted by Pennsylvania Child Care, LLC” said
Hillary Kane, Chair of the Green Party of Pennsylvania. “When I think of
the long-term impact unwarranted juvenile detention will have on those
children and their families, it really makes me angry.”

“The concept of removing the responsibility and oversight of public
governing to private corporations has been one of increasing belief that
market forces, which worship profit over people, could deliver services
more efficiently and at a lower cost to taxpayers,” said Blyden Potts,
Secretary of the Green Party of Pennsylvania. “What you wind up with is
this type of abuse that would not occur under a properly-led public
administration that respects its citizens.”

The Green Party of Pennsylvania believes local municipal and township
governments have the right and duty to refuse the contracting of some
state activities. We call for local governments to enact ordinance
prohibitions against the private management of public responsibilities,
specifically, juvenile detention centers in their locale.

Social Justice remains a key pillar of Green political beliefs. This
scandal has shaken Pennsylvanian parents and families to the core. We
grieve for the suffering of the parents and young people wrongful
abused. Greens call for not only full financial and judicial redress for
the innocent people involved, but for a full investigation of the
political environment that allowed for the many years of corruption and
abuse by the two judges, and those private business interests complicit
in this scandal.

Said Carl Romanelli of Luzerne County; “Sadly, Greens have been at odds
with these judges here in Luzerne County for years.  It makes one wonder
where the peer review has been.  Further, the appeals system in
Pennsylvania simply rubber stamps the corrupt decisions of criminal
judges.  We must break the cycle of judges protecting themselves, and
their exclusive club, rather than protecting the rights of
Pennsylvanians.  You need look no deeper than my case with the state
court to see this ugly dynamic at play,” said Romanelli referring to his
ongoing ballot access court case.

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