The Responsibility of Lawyers and Other Professionals for Unethical Conduct
<p class="MsoNormal">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?</p>
<p class="MsoNormal">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.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal">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.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/13/us/13judge.html" target="”_blank”">An
article</a> in today’s New York <i>Times</i>
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.”</p>
<p class="MsoNormal">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 <span class="SpellE">Ciavarella</span>, 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.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Don’t lawyers, especially government lawyers, have a responsibility to protect the
public interest, not to mention children?</p>
<p class="MsoNormal">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.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal">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.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal">If only the judges involved could be sentenced to a juvenile
detention center, where every kid knows what they did. <span class="GramE">But
what about the lawyers and other professionals who did nothing to protect the victims?</span>
</p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Two years ago, <a href="http://www.cityethics.org/node/221" target="”_blank”">I
wrote about</a> another Pennsylvania
case, involving state senator Vincent J. <span class="SpellE">Fumo</span>,
entitling the blog entry “It Takes a Village.” A village of professionals stood
by and let Judge <span class="SpellE">Ciavarella</span> do harm to thousands of children.
They watched silently as the judge and his co-conspirator effectively kidnapped
one young person after another.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal">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.</p>
<br>
Robert Wechsler<br>
Director of Research-Retired, City Ethics<br>
<br>
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