The story is incredible: Thousands of children wrongfully sentenced to juvenile detention centers, many without legal representation and after cursory hearings, by two rogue judges in northern Pennsylvania who received millions of dollars in bribes from the private institutions’ owners.

The scheme, which reportedly took place between 2003 and 2008, became national news starting in 2009 for its brazenness and cruelty, made even more shocking by the deadly silence of public defenders, prosecutors, and other court staff who did nothing to report the abuse by Judges Mark A. Ciavarella and Michael T. Conahan.