yt.www.watch.player.write("watch-player-div", false, null, null, "100%", "100%"); Want to Subscribe?Sign In or Sign Up now! Conahan and Ciavarella have made a plea deal with the US Attorney that includes a 78 month prison term in exchange for full cooperation with the authorities on relevant investigations. For years, t... Conahan and Ciavarella have made a plea deal with the US Attorney that includes a 78 month prison term in exchange for full cooperation with the authorities on relevant investigations.For years, the juvenile court system in Wilkes-Barre operated like a conveyor belt: Youngsters were brought before judges without a lawyer, given hearings that lasted only a minute or two, and then sent off to juvenile prison for months for minor offenses.The explanation, prosecutors say, was corruption on the bench. With two republican judges.In one of the most shocking cases of courtroom graft on record, two Pennsylvania judges have been charged with taking millions of dollars in kickbacks to send teenagers to two privately run youth detention centers.Ive never encountered, and I dont think that we will in our lifetimes, a case where literally thousands of kids lives were just tossed aside in order for a couple of judges to make some money, said Marsha Levick, an attorney with the Philadelphia-based Juvenile Law Center, which is representing hundreds of youths sentenced in Wilkes-Barre.Prosecutors say Luzerne County Judges Mark Ciavarella and Michael Conahan took $2.6 million in payoffs to put juvenile offenders in lockups run by PA Child Care LLC and a sister company, Western PA Child Care LLC. The judges were charged on Jan. 26 and removed from the bench by the Pennsylvania Supreme Court shortly afterward.No company officials have been charged, but the investigation is still going on.The high court, meanwhile, is looking into whether hundreds or even thousands of sentences should be overturned and the juveniles records expunged.Among the offenders were teenagers...