Commission Chair: Failure of lawyers big part of problem

Mark Guydish

The juvenile justice scandal was the result of "total collapse" of the system, but a big chunk of the blame rests on the shoulders of defense attorneys and prosecutors who saw problems but did not speak up, Interbranch Commission on Juvenile Justice Chairman Judge John Cleland said during a press conference following the release of the commission's report and recommendations.

"We were all struck by the collapse of the rule of law," Cleland said, "that every check and balance that we fully anticipate would come into play to make sure the system works collapsed. We had judges who if they weren't criminal they were incompetent, we had defense lawyers who didn't perform their functions, we had prosecutors who stood by ... we had a community that at least at some level was aware of what was going on. This was no secret, this was well reported in the newspapers."

Normally, Cleland said, one or two aspects of the system might collapse, but other parts would come into play and restore balance. That didn't happen in Luzerne Coutny.

While the primary fault rests with "the corruption or comptence of the judges that were involved," Cleland said that "second is the failure of the system of defense and prosecution to assume their responsibilites. You have a situation, we have an 11-year-old litlte boy who owes $488 in fines and costs and the judge says 'Can you pay it?' and he says, 'No,' and the response is put handcuffs and shackles on him and get him out of here, and nobody in the courtroom said a word. There's a collosal failure on a lot of levels."

Asked about attorneys who said they felt the judges are too powerful to oppose and speak up, Cleland was blunt.

"My personal feeling is I have no sympathy for that, that's their job," he said, noting the right of attorneys to speak out goes back centuries. "If there are lawyers who will not speak up for justice and freedom, then we are all in a very sad state."

Cleland said the governor, legislature and state judicial system have all shown strong interest in the release of the report, and took that as a sign it will not be ignored. He encourage the public to get involved.

 "The public always has the responsibility for good government, and this is a classic situation where the public response will be helpful," he said. "We're talking about kids. And who speaks for kids? Adults.

"We tried to prepare this report to give any person the information they need to advance the cause of the children. Even the account of what happened is written in a very readable way. ... When people read that, I hope it will motivate them to contact their legislators, work with their local court, contact their county commissioners."