Open juvenile proceedings, panel is urged

HARRISBURG - Pennsylvania should open the doors wider to its juvenile courtrooms to the public and prevent young suspects from waiving their rights to a lawyer when charged with a crime.

Those ideas and others need to be put in place to prevent a repeat of the "kids for cash" judicial scandal in Luzerne County, according to testimony to a special panel yesterday.

Robert G. Schwartz, executive director of the Juvenile Law Center, told the Interbranch Commission on Juvenile Justice that what happened in Luzerne "was a toxic combination of for-profit facilities, corrupt judges, and professional indifference."

"It was the Love Canal of juvenile courts," he added.

Schwartz's group, which is based in Philadelphia, was among the first to question the practices of former Judges Mark Ciavarella and Michael Conahan, who are accused of collecting $2.6 million in kickbacks for sending thousands of juveniles to two private detention centers, one in Luzerne and the other in Butler County.

The two pleaded guilty last year to fraud charges, but a judge threw out their plea agreements, saying the men had not accepted responsibility. They are awaiting trial.

Yesterday was the sixth public hearing the commission has held since it was formed to study the scandal and brainstorm ways to prevent it from recurring.

Now the process for the commission has shifted to "the recommendations and solutions phase," said John M. Cleland, a Superior Court judge and chairman of the commission.

At earlier hearings, witnesses testified that Ciavarella had pressured juveniles to waive their rights to a lawyer and never informed the youngsters of the risks of doing so. He even set up tables outside his courtroom so teens could sign the forms, they said.

As a result, more than half of those who appeared before Ciavarella had no attorney - a rate five times the statewide average.

Schwartz yesterday proposed a blanket prohibition against a juvenile's waiving the right to legal representation.

"Given their immaturity, they are much less likely to make informed decisions that consider risks and look to the future," he said.

James E. Anderson, the executive director of the Juvenile Court Judges' Commission, suggested that a juvenile must at the very least consult with a lawyer before waiving the right to counsel. And even if that right is waived, a defense lawyer should be present during court proceedings on a standby basis, Anderson told the panel yesterday.

Anderson runs the state agency that advises legislators, the administration, and local courthouses on juvenile court issues.

The agency is also supporting a state Senate bill that would open all juvenile court hearings to the public and news reporters except for extreme cases that judges believe would need to be conducted behind closed doors.

News outlets would be prohibited from disclosing the names of minors.

The proposal was among the recommendations made by Schwarz's group as well, but he questioned whether the news media alone were the solution.

In 1996, the state began allowing public access to juvenile cases in certain circumstances involving older youths charged with serious offenses. At the time, Schwarz said, the courts "prepared themselves for hordes of press and public."

"No one showed up," he added. "It seems that the quotidian business of juvenile court is just not that interesting."

Commission member Robert Listenbee, the chief of the Philadelphia Defender Association's Juvenile Unit, said he supported the idea of allowing greater public access to juvenile proceedings as long as there was a way to ensure the confidentiality of personal information.

"That has to be protected," he said.

If the proposal is adopted, Pennsylvania will join about 30 states that have most of their juvenile court proceedings open to the public, said Greg Hurley, an analyst with the National Center for State Courts.

The commission is expected to reconvene today and explore how state agencies collected juvenile court data.

It has scheduled two additional rounds of hearing, one Feb. 1 and 2 in Harrisburg and the other Feb. 25 in Wilkes-Barre. At that final hearing, the commission will again hear from juveniles sentenced in the scandal.

The panel then will set out to craft a final report and must present its recommendations to Gov. Rendell, the legislature, and the Supreme Court by May 31.

Other recommendations made by Schwartz and Anderson yesterday included proposals to expand the appeal rights of juveniles and for the state to, for the first time, provide dollars to help counties pay for legal representation of indigent minors.

Listenbee said it appeared the commission was "building a consensus" toward including most of the ideas made yesterday into its final report.

But during the five-hour hearing, there was little discussion about another proposal - one offered by Schwartz to have lawyers who regularly practiced before Ciavarella referred to the state disciplinary board for possible sanctions.

"It may be hard for a defense attorney or prosecutor to spot an isolated case of judicial misconduct," he told commission members. "Luzerne County involved a half decade's worth of abuse. . . . If there was ever a situation where lawyers fell short of their professional obligations, this was it."