Settlement Approved in Kids-For-Cash Jailing Scandal (Pennsylvania)

Aug 12, 2015

A federal judge has approved a settlement in the Kids-For-Cash jailing scandal that resulted in the wrongful imprisonment of hundreds if not thousands of Pennsylvania juveniles from 2003 to 2008. 

The judge presiding over a class action suit against Robert Powell, the corrupt co-owner of the subject youth-detention centers, will permit the defendant to compensate victims and their families $4.75-million for his scheme to use innocent children “as pawns to enrich himself.”

The unprecedented scandal came fully to light in 2009, and involved crooked county judges, developers and other officials accepting millions of dollars in bribes in exchange for funneling minors into Powell’s newly constructed for-profit prison facilities.

To prosecute the case, Pennsylvania resorted to an ancient but rarely used legal process called “King’s Bench Jurisdiction” which ultimately helped jail a handful of powerful perps for their roles in the heartless crime ring.

The 56-year-old defendant is a disbarred attorney himself and served perhaps the lightest sentence of all those convicted in the greedy Kids-For-Cash conspiracy, which saw at least one falsely-imprisoned youngster take his life during incarceration.

The multimillion-dollar settlement approved this week contains an opt-out clause, however, which paves the way for some injured parties to still pursue much greater monetary awards from Powell.

Eponymous Rox

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