The recent scandal involving Pennsylvania juvenile court judges Mark A. Ciavarella Jr. and Michael T. Conahan is the tip of an ugly iceberg.

Ciavarella and Conahan have pleaded guilty to charges that they took kickbacks totaling $2.6 million in return for sentencing minors to incarceration at private detention centers, even when such sentences were not warranted by the facts. In a typical case, a stellar 17-year-old high school student was ordered to serve...