Philadelphia Inquirer: “On the heels of accusations that Luzerne County judges took bribes from juvenile-detention center operators comes a new federal government report detailing sexual abuse of young inmates at such facilities.
“The Justice Department’s Bureau of Justice Statistics reports that 12 percent of youths in state juvenile facilities and large non-state facilities say they have experienced one or more incidents of sexual abuse by another inmate or a staff member of the facility…
“Privately run juvenile-detention facilities are at the heart of the Luzerne County case, in which former judges Mark A. Ciavarella Jr. and Michael T. Conahan face federal racketeering charges. They allegedly sent young defendants accused of relatively minor charges to two youth detention centers in exchange for bribes.
“The Justice Department report says coerced sex is too often the fate of juvenile-detention inmates. Even worse, it said 10 percent of the young inmates say the sex was with a staff member of the juvenile facility, and in 95 percent of those cases, the staff member was a female. Women make up about 42 percent of the staff at juvenile facilities nationwide.”…
