News

February 20, 2009

Juvie workers ask for jobs back

Ex-employees wade into controversy over the shuttered center.

By Jennifer Learn-Andes jandes@timesleader.com
Luzerne County Reporter
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The union representing employees who were laid off when former Luzerne County president Judge Michael Conahan closed the county-owned juvenile detention center in 2002 have sent a letter to county officials demanding to be “made whole.”

The letter to county commissioners and new President Judge Chester Muroski was written by David Antle, district director of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME), which represented the 16 full-time child care workers who lost their jobs.

Antle said the union “demands” that all employees who lost their jobs be offered reinstatement with the county and be “made whole for any damages they may have suffered.” He said the demand is warranted by the recent discovery that the “purported rationale for closing the facility was completely false.”

“I am prepared to meet with you to discuss how to remedy the situation and return the work to Luzerne County and to make the employees whole for the damages they have incurred as a result of the actions of Judges Ciavarella and Conahan,” the letter says.

Luzerne County judges Mark Ciavarella and Conahan recently pleaded guilty to receiving $2.6 million in kickbacks in exchange for actions that led to the county’s use of juvenile detention centers owned by PA Child Care in Pittston Township and western Pennsylvania.

Shortly before the Pittston Township center’s opening in 2003, Conahan announced that he would no longer send juveniles to the county-owned River Street detention center. Conahan stripped funding for the 16 county detention center workers from his budget and returned the county detention center license to the state, even though the state said the county-owned building met licensing requirements.

Antle said in his letter that AFSCME representatives met with Ciavarella, Conahan and court Administrative Services Director Paul McGarry before the county-owned center closed. Ciavarella and Conahan told the union they controlled where children were sent for detention and that they would be sending them to another facility, Antle said.

“Needless to say, we are all aware of the fact that those children were sent to PA Child Care, a private facility in which Judges Ciavarella and Conahan had a pecuniary interest,” Antle wrote.

Antle said the “privatization” of detention has cost county residents millions of dollars and “resulted in unimaginable harm.”

County minority Commissioner Stephen A. Urban said officials will have to review the matter. The union had filed a grievance on behalf of the 16 employees when they were laid off, but it’s unclear whether it was resolved.

“I find it troubling that the union is coming back seven years later and looking for some sort of remedy,” Urban said. “Why didn’t they take their grievance to court if they’re supposed to fight for this work and this work was privatized?”

Antle could not be reached for comment Thursday.

Urban said he also wants to know more about McGarry’s involvement in PA Child Care discussions because McGarry has “remained silent on his involvement.” McGarry could not be reached for comment.

Jennifer Learn-Andes, a Times Leader staff writer, can be reached at 831-7333.

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