Posted: Wednesday, 16 December 2009 11:32AM
We Must Protect The Children
Steve Corbett Reporting
Wednesday, December 16, 2009
Stripped of their human, civil and constitutional rights, thousands of Luzerne County children stood before former juvenile Judge Mark Ciavarella as he berated them, mocked them, scared them and imprisoned them.
The children left the courtroom in chains.
Now this disgraced one-time president judge faces 48 federal felonies related to what prosecutors call a “kids for cash” racketeering scheme that netted Ciavarella millions of dollars as a modern day slave trader.
The children might never heal.
So how do we prevent this tragic and systematic breakdown of law and order from happening again? How do we protect the next generation of troubled children in this county that is the target of an ongoing federal public corruption probe?
We watch.
We watch very, very closely.
But unless we step into the juvenile courtroom where those terrible acts took place, we’ll never see how the new juvenile judge behaves. Unless we pay attention from the inside, the demons might strike again.
Former county District Attorney Dave Lupas is now the juvenile judge. He is charged with the moral and legal responsibility of protecting children’s rights. Critics say he failed as DA to protect the same children Ciavarella sold into slavery and do not trust him in his new role.
That’s fair.
No Luzerne County judge gets a pass nowadays.
Neither does the public or the press.
If we truly care about troubled children, we’re all duty-bound to closely monitor juvenile court to make sure that no judge, defense lawyer, public defender prosecutor, juvenile probation official or anybody else stands by while children are abused.
But such conscious scrutiny is easier said than done.
Most people believe that juvenile court proceedings are close to the public and the press.
That’s not true.
Many proceedings are indeed open to the public and the press and concerned citizens are entitled by law to sit and observe courtroom proceedings.
A well-respected state juvenile judge from another county told me last week that he regularly opens ALL juvenile proceedings to the press as long as reporters agree to protect the child’s identity.
Many other juvenile hearings and trials are open to the public.
The judge said he welcomes such public inspection as a way to reassure the community that everyone’s rights, particularly the children’s rights, are protected. Opening the court is a good way for people to better understand the system, he said. Welcoming the public and the press fosters an environment of trust.
The judge said that he posts a list of open proceedings each day on the courtroom door.
No such list exists in Luzerne County.
I’ve been trying to get a roster of open juvenile hearings from Lupas for several days.
Yesterday I received a voice message from Lupas’ assistant who said the judge would be compiling the list after consulting with the juvenile probation office and the district attorneys office. A hearing in a week might be open to the public, the assistant said.
Good, but not good enough.
Lupas needs to let the people he serves know well enough in advance the scheduled open hearings. He should post the information in the county website so people can make arrangements to attend hearings if they so desire. He must provide this information without fail or interruption on a weekly basis. If he doesn’t provide the information, he must be disciplined.
Lupas quickly needs to get better organized. So do other county public servants charged with the ominous responsibility of treating troubled children who need help, guidance, protection and love.
Parents who went through the hell of Ciavarella’s court might want to form a watchdog group to help them help others. Such an organization would function as therapy for them as well as a form of strong civic activism that will help other parents from suffering.
Some of the children Ciavarella hurt are old enough to serve as guardians of justice.
Who better than they to watch the new judge?
Who better than they to know injustice when they see it?
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Corbett
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