Nothing But Trouble in Pennsylvania : denialism blog

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Mark Hoofnagle has a MD and PhD in physiology from the University of Virginia, and is now a general surgery resident. His interest in denialism concerns the use of denialist tactics to confuse public understanding of scientific knowledge.

Chris Hoofnagle teaches privacy and computer crime law at the University of California, Berkeley School of Law. A former Washington lawyer, Chris wrote the The Denialists' Deck of Cards based upon his experiences working on consumer protection.

PalMD is a practicing internist in the Midwestern United States. Aside from the great joy he finds in his family and his work, he likes communicating some of that joy to others. He has a special interest in the ways patients---and we are all patients at one time or another---are deceived by charlatans. He aims to change the world, one reader at a time. Previous writings can still be found here.

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Nothing But Trouble in Pennsylvania

Category: Wasting your time
Posted on: March 28, 2009 6:57 PM, by Chris H

Does this article about the Pennsyltucky judge who was sending kids to jail to collect kickbacks from a private prison remind anyone of the Chevy Chase movie called Nothing But Trouble?

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It's been forever since I saw that movie. As far as I can remember, the main similarity is that neither story is the least bit funny.

Posted by: Roadtripper | March 28, 2009 7:39 PM

What is it with those in the legal and medical professions? Don't they know computers are everywhere and pretty much every metric from their court or practice is being held in a database, waiting for the day that a prosecutor can prove Medicare fraud or judicial malfeasance?

I know, I helped prove the case against a doctor who was upcoding his Medicare patients. It became obvious when someone from the IRS forwarded his tax burden data. The logarithmic plots on the graphs matched perfectly.

Posted by: Tony P | March 28, 2009 11:17 PM

Careful, Chris. You have family from Kentucky and they may not appreciate being lumped together with Pennsylvania. The article is pretty amazing, though.

Posted by: Cousin Andy | March 29, 2009 7:50 AM

So, everyone knew about it, nobody really did anything.
There are many other people who should be joining these guys in prison for helping.

Let us hope the mercy shown in prison is exactly what they showed to others.

Posted by: Richard Eis | March 31, 2009 8:56 AM

i grew up in the wilkes-barre/scranton area, and although i know often all of pa outside pitt & philly is sometimes considered pennsyltucky, it's important to note that the wb/scranton area isn't that small (550,000 people) and is definitely not a backwoods area. it makes it all the more embarrassing for a native from the area b/c a rural, more archaic court system might have been an excuse for this behavior continuing so long unabated, but alas it's not. This is a fairly large court system that should have had enough checks and balances in place to stop this before it got this far. The last time wilkes-barre made national news was a few years ago when a murder suspect escaped from the county jail by tying bed sheets together and climbing out a window that was left open. no joke.

Posted by: Marc | April 5, 2009 1:14 PM

Yet more evidence for the case against privatized incarceration. As soon as there's profit available anywhere, there will be scum like these judges (and those providing their kickbacks) that try to take unfair advantage. The prison system in the US has long abandoned the pretense that they are there to rehabilitate anyone. Incarceration is punishment, nothing less. Even the argument that the protection of society is their goal fails as longer sentences are given for simple drug possession than for manslaughter. There should never ever be a monetary profit involved with incarcerating prisoners.

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