Luzerne County Judges

January 22, 2010

Red flags seen early, panel told

A board investigating the Luzerne County juvenile justice scandal hears witnesses say that warnings were not acted upon.

By Terrie Morgan-Besecker tmorgan@timesleader.com
Law & Order Reporter
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HARRISBURG – Signs of trouble within Luzerne County’s juvenile court system surfaced years before the current scandal broke, but a host of factors prevented anyone from piecing together the magnitude of the problem, according to testimony Thursday before the Interbranch Commission on Juvenile Justice.

Former judge Mark Ciavarella’s reputation for placing a large percentage of juveniles in residential facilities was well known, officials with the state Department of Public Welfare and the Juvenile Court Judges Commission told the commission.

Concerns were raised with county and court officials, but no one ever delved deeper to determine the reasoning for the high placement rates, the officials acknowledged.

Then there were the attorneys and probation officials who regularly appeared before Ciavarella. They witnessed youths being carted out in handcuffs, many for minor offenses, yet no one stood up to challenge Ciavarella, said Robert Schwartz, executive director of the Juvenile Law Center in Philadelphia.

Those failings allowed abuses to fester for years, turning Luzerne County into the “Love Canal of juvenile courts,” Schwartz said, referring to the infamous toxic waste site in New York state.

Schwartz was among four witnesses who testified before the Interbranch Commission, which was formed in August to investigate failings within Luzerne County’s juvenile justice system. Thursday’s hearing marked the sixth day of testimony the commission has taken since October 2009. Three additional hearings – today, Feb. 1, 2 and 25, will be held before the commission submits a report to the state Supreme Court.

The JLC was the agency that filed the petition that led the state Supreme Court to vacate the convictions of thousands of juveniles who appeared before Ciavarella from 2003 to 2008 – the time frame that federal prosecutors say Ciavarella and former Judge Michael Conahan accepted millions of dollars from the builder and co-owner of two juvenile facilities the county utilized.

The court’s ruling was based on an investigation by a special master, who determined Ciavarella had routinely violated juveniles’ rights to a fair trial by allowing them to appear without an attorney. He also failed to conduct state-mandated questioning to ensure a juvenile who pleaded guilty understood the rights he or she was giving up by doing so.

The JLC has been highly critical of prosecutors and public defenders who appeared before Ciavarella. On Thursday, Schwartz took that criticism to a new level, accusing the attorneys of violating their professional obligation and calling upon the Interbranch Commission to refer them to the state’s disciplinary board for possible sanctions.

“We heard from families who made contact with lawyers and were told ‘it was not going to make a difference, don’t bother, there’s nothing we can do,’ ” Schwartz testified. “We just don’t understand how folks could divert their eyes and say this is not our problem nothing can be done about it.”

Testimony before the commission revealed there were other opportunities to bring abuses within the system to light, but they were missed because no one realized the significance of data collected by Department of Public Welfare and the Juvenile Court Judges Commission.

The JCJC collects and analyzes juvenile court data from counties statewide. It prepares an annual report that contains placement rates and other pertinent information, such as an analysis of the types of offenses juveniles commit.

Robert Anderson, executive director of the JCJC, said the agency was aware that placement rates were exceptionally high in Luzerne County, but that, by itself, did not raise any “red flags.”

“They had high placement rates, but there were other counties that had high placement rates. Our data did not cause an alarm to go off,” he said.

Anderson said he did speak to Ciavarella once regarding the data in 2005 after state Rep. Phyllis Mundy raised questions regarding the placement rates.

“He said he was only placing children that needed to be placed and that he cared a great deal,” Anderson said.

It wasn’t until 2008, when the Juvenile Law Center asked JCJC to compile data regarding the number of children who were not represented by an attorney that alarms began to go off.

The data showed that 50 percent of youths in Luzerne County did not have an attorney – 10 times the state average. The JCJC then looked at placement rates for those juveniles and found that 60 percent of them were sent to residential facilities.

Richard Gold, deputy secretary of DPW’s department of Children, Youth and Families, said he, too, raised concerns regarding the county’s high placement rate during a 2007 budget review meeting the county commissioners, Ciavarella and juvenile probation staff. DPW provides part of the funding for juvenile delinquency placements.

“Judge Ciavarella wasn’t pleased at all about being questioned about practices within his jurisdiction,” Gold said. “I received a reprimand for questioning how out of sync the county was.”

Speaking after the hearing, Gold said he never got a good explanation from any county official. The response was simply that “we’re working on it.”

Gold made a point to note that DPW’s relationship with the county has improved significantly under the new administration. He praised current county commissioners, juvenile court Judge David Lupas and officials with the county’s Office of Children and Youth for efforts they’ve undertaken.

Those steps include greatly increasing the use of outpatient services, including drug-and-alcohol and behavioral services, that have significantly reduced the need to place youths in residential facilities.

“They are really working in a collaborative day to make sure every child get what they need,” Gold said.

Terrie Morgan-Besecker, a Times Leader staff writer, may be reached at 570-970-7179.

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