The Responsibility of Lawyers and Other Professionals for Unethical Conduct

What is more horrible than the scheme of two eastern Pennsylvania judges to fill two for-profit juvenile detention centers with thousands of youths who would not otherwise have been removed from their families and schools?

The fact that they could get away with it in the midst of a world of professionals – lawyers, social workers, police officers, and various court and juvenile workers -- all of whom knew that the youths were being unjustly harmed, even though they did not know why.

The fact that the state supreme court, a year ago, would not even hear a motion filed by the Juvenile Law Center concerning the rights of these youths to be told they could bring counsel to their hearings.

An article in today’s New York Times quotes a lawyer with the Juvenile Law Center in Philadelphia as saying, “There was a culture of intimidation surrounding this judge and no one was willing to speak up about the sentences he was handing down.”

Lawyers and other professionals must have known that the sentences were harsh; juvenile advocacy groups were protesting about it. One out of ten Pennsylvania juveniles are sent to detention centers. One of four was put away by Judge Ciavarella, who has pled guilty to wire fraud and income tax fraud, but not to sending away far too many youths or taking money ($2.6 million from the detention centers which he was responsible for forming and approving) for doing it.

Don’t lawyers, especially government lawyers, have a responsibility to protect the public interest, not to mention children?

Again and again in local government ethics matters, I see a culture of intimidation. But there can be no intimidation when lawyers fulfill their responsibilities. One lawyer with moral courage, especially a government lawyer or judge, could have put an end to this. The Juvenile Law Center was focused on the right to counsel, but that was only part of the problem. One lawyer confronting the judge, talking to judicial administrators and, if nothing were done, going to the press could have brought scrutiny to this scheme years ago (the over-sentencing began in 2003), saving thousands of youths from harm.

Juvenile courts work without transparency, to protect the youths that come before them. But this confidentiality also protects those who abuse the system. This puts extra responsibility on those who witness what occurs, because they are the only ones who know and who can know.

If only the judges involved could be sentenced to a juvenile detention center, where every kid knows what they did. But what about the lawyers and other professionals who did nothing to protect the victims?

Two years ago, I wrote about another Pennsylvania case, involving state senator Vincent J. Fumo, entitling the blog entry “It Takes a Village.” A village of professionals stood by and let Judge Ciavarella do harm to thousands of children. They watched silently as the judge and his co-conspirator effectively kidnapped one young person after another.

The same thing happened in my town when it was run by officials who ran slipshod over laws, intimidating anyone who spoke out. And so, while ordinary citizens voiced their opinions, not one lawyer or other professional, working for the town or not, spoke out. This, more than unethical officials, more than unethical contractors and developers, is responsible for the unethical conduct in our cities and counties, and in our courts.