Judge converted his courtroom into a criminal enterprise, collecting bribes and kickbacks totaling $257,000.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/national/f......ory.html

Interesting comments by the Bent Judge.

Ever since I was a kid I wanted to be a judge

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IEeIUn2uESU

Many in positions of authority are really criminals taking these jobs to aid in their criminal activity.

http://mynorthwest.com/11/2321544/Seattl......stalking

Iven

Judge arrested for conspiring to plant drugs, and manipulating criminal charges, on his lovers ex-husband.

http://www.wvgazette.com/News/201308150046

One of the most shocking of recent years:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kids_for_cash_scandal

MaxfieldsMagic-

Sadly, with the increasing privatization of the prison system, I believe that similar abuses are taking place with adult defendants sentenced to inordinate time in privately run prisons. When there is profit to be made in incarcerating people, it seems obvious that there will be those who seek to maximize their income.

One of the reasons the Federal Bureau of Prisons was created in the first place was to avoid the corruption of the private prison facilities. Even now, the privatized federal Residential Reentry Centers are held to a lesser legal standard in some respects. For instance, if a contract correctional officer at an RRC has sex with a ward at a location away from the facility - such as a motel or the CO's residence, he or she can't be charged under 18 USC 2243(b) (Sexual Abuse of a Minor or Ward), whereas sex between a BOP employee and an inmate is always charged as a felony. Needless to say, this is a pretty glaring double standard.

Thanks in part to the sequester, the Federal Bureau of Prisons seems to be looking for ways to decrease its prison population for budgetary and safety reasons, at least within the limited discretion it is given. For example, the BOP's "compassionate release program," seems to be code for "release the fogies before we have to pay for their end-of-life care." The DOJ Inspector General has noted to Congress that BOP is consuming an ever larger portion of the DOJ budget, and that seems to have gotten some people's attention in regards to mandatory minimum sentences. Hopefully it doesn't become an excuse for yet more privatization.