Kids-for-cash judge loses bid for lighter prison sentence

By MICHAEL RUBINKAM Associated Press
A federal judge has upheld the 28-year prison sentence of a disgraced Pennsylvania judge who locked up thousands of juvenile offenders while he was taking kickbacks from the owner and builder of for-profit detention centers. Mark Ciavarella, a former Luzerne County juvenile court judge, had been seeking a lighter sentence after three of the 12 counts of his 2011 conviction were overturned on appeal. U.S. District Judge Christopher C. Conner ruled this week that Ciavarella was not legally entitled to a new sentencing hearing.