The 48-count indictment handed down Wednesday by a federal grand jury in Harrisburg against two former Luzerne County judges is a necessary escalation of a case whose sordid tentacles unfortunately extend to northern Butler County.

Ex-Judges Michael Conahan and Mark Ciavarella Jr. dealt a blow to the public's trust of the courts by way of their acceptance of millions of dollars in kickbacks related to the construction and operation of two privately owned youth detention centers, PA Child Care LLC in Luzerne County and Western PA Child Care LLC in this county.

More importantly and unfortunately, their crimes adversely affected the lives of many juveniles who appeared before them. Because kickbacks were in play, many youths were handed stiffer sentences than they deserved — and otherwise might have received — for their illegal actions.

In the case of Ciavarella, he compiled the dubious record of having sentenced about 25 percent of the youths appearing before him to juvenile detention centers. The state average for such sentencings is about 10 percent.

The scandal involving the judges led the state Supreme Court to overturn hundreds of juvenile convictions — and additional convictions are under review — on grounds that Ciavarella, who presided over juvenile court, violated the constitutional rights of youths who appeared in his courtroom without lawyers for hearings that lasted just a few minutes.

Regarding some of the youths whose convictions were overturned, that necessary high court action might not be in the public's long-term best interests, if the punishment the youths have been spared is used as an opportunity to commit new crimes.

The two judges pleaded guilty in February to honest services fraud and tax evasion in a deal with prosecutors that called for a sentence of 87 months in prison, a pittance when compared with federal guidelines. But Senior U.S. District Judge Edward M. Kosik, to his credit, rejected the deal last month, and Conahan and Ciavarella switched their pleas to not guilty.

Wednesday's indictment, which includes charges of racketeering, fraud, money laundering, extortion, bribery and federal tax violations, could mean decades in prison for the ex-judges — the kind of sentences that Conahan and Ciavarella deserve.

It was in 2002 that Conahan, Luzerne's former president judge, shut down the county-owned juvenile detention center and signed the agreement to send youth offenders to the two privately owned facilities in question. Ciavarella took payments from the facilities' owners while he was ordering juveniles to serve time in those facilities.

Robert Powell, a lawyer and PA Child Care owner, pleaded guilty July 1 to paying kickbacks to the judges.

It's right that juveniles or anyone else who commits a crime receive a sentence commensurate with the severity of that crime. But meting out those sentences must be done in accordance with the full responsibilities entrusted to judges — responsibilities that stipulate that their rulings not be tainted in any way.

For Ciavarella and Conahan, for years, tainted rulings apparently were a way of life — a way of life for which they now must be punished.

The 48-count federal indictment is the proper path to that punishment, rather than the sweetheart deal with prosecutors that made a mockery of the severity of the crimes for which the ex-judges are accused.

For Butler County, it's troubling having any connection to the judges' crimes. But it's important to note that no one locally has been implicated in connection with the scandal.

For this county's sake, it must be hoped that any subsequent investigation related to the case proves conclusively that there were in fact no direct ties by anyone here to any of the corruption involving the two judges.