HARRISBURG -- In a harsh and devastating report, a commission set up to investigate the "kids for cash" scandal in Luzerne County issued far-reaching recommendations Thursday aimed at overhauling the state's juvenile justice system.

More than half of its 66-page report recounts how the scandal unfolded, drawing on testimony and court transcripts to show the suffering of thousands of young victims and their families.

"We had judges who if they weren't criminal they were incompetent. We had defense lawyers who didn't perform their functions. We had prosecutors who stood by. ... We had a community that at least at some level was aware of what was going on," commission chairman John M. Cleland said at a news conference Thursday.

The 11-member commission was created as a result of a federal corruption probe that led to charges against two Luzerne County judges accused of receiving more than $2.8 million in payoffs from the operators of two juvenile detention centers.

The report by the Interbranch Commission on Juvenile Justice outlines 43 recommendations aimed at restoring public confidence and preventing a similar scandal in the future. They include:

• Ensuring juveniles have access to defense counsel.

• Improving oversight of judges and the accountability of the state Judicial Conduct Board.

• Imposing mandatory ethics training for county and appellate judges.

The recommendations would affect everyone who touches the juvenile justice system, from judges to defendants.

Gov. Ed Rendell and Pennsylvania Chief Justice Ronald D. Castille said they had not yet reviewed the report and could not comment.

House Majority Leader Todd Eachus, a Democrat from Luzerne County, said he would propose legislation to address some of the recommendations, specifically the one related to the lack of access by juveniles to counsel.

The report described as "Dickensian" the role of former Judge Mark A. Ciavarella Jr., who ordered children as young as 11 to jail for failure to pay fines, "effectively using the county detention center as a debtor's prison for children."

More than half the juveniles who appeared in Mr. Ciavarella's courtroom between 2003 and 2008 did so without counsel, the report said. Witnesses told the commission that Mr. Ciavarella had pressured defendants into waiving their right to counsel and even had a table set up outside his courtroom with waiver forms to sign.

The report concluded that many defense attorneys who had appeared before Mr. Ciavarella "clearly abdicated their responsibilities" to defend their clients.

Mr. Ciavarella and another former Luzerne County judge, Michael T. Conahan, pleaded guilty to corruption charges, but a federal judge threw out their plea agreements, saying the men had not accepted responsibility for their actions. Mr. Conahan pleaded guilty to one count of racketeering conspiracy last month.

The state Supreme Court directed in October that 4,000 juvenile cases be vacated after a comprehensive review by a special master it had appointed.

The commission concluded that Mr. Ciavarella and Mr. Conahan were the heart of the problem in Luzerne County -- but found "the causes of the breakdown are more far-reaching" and included prosecutors, probation officers, and disciplinary boards.

Among the groups singled out for "its failings" was the Judicial Conduct Board, a constitutionally created body charged with safeguarding "the integrity of and public confidence in the judicial process," which failed to act on a lengthy complaint about Mr. Ciavarella in 2006.

The commission said the board "lacks sufficient oversight" and recommended that it review its operating procedures and that down the road a panel examine how to achieve better oversight and accountability.

The Judicial Conduct Board staff -- and a member, Philadelphia lawyer Mark Aronchick -- declined to comment and referred calls to the board's attorney, Paul Titus, who was out of the office and unavailable.

Mr. Cleland said that certain juvenile proceedings such as felonies may be open, but that closing others protected the privacy of a child who may commit a "stupid" act at a young age to ensure that it doesn't haunt the juvenile later in life, for instance, on the Internet.

He said the commission, made up of lawyers, judges and prosecutors, had examined the state's juvenile justice system beyond Luzerne County and found no systemic problems statewide.

Commission member Kenneth J. Horoho, Jr., a Pittsburgh-based family lawyer, said he was struck by the permissiveness of the district attorneys, probation officers, court staff and even private attorneys who allowed the former judge's draconian rule of law to continue. In fact, Mr. Ciavarella's "no-nonsense" style was even endorsed by some in the community, he said.

Others who testified before the commission admitted they assumed the way it was done in Luzerne County was the way it was done everywhere. The fact that Mr. Ciavarella frequently held adjudication and placement hearings in a handful of minutes never raised any red flags.

In Allegheny County, adjudication and placement occur in separate hearings, and the latter can take up to day, with psychologists, social workers and other experts called to testify.Mr. Horoho praised Allegheny County's system, where a juvenile indigent defense fund and a network of experienced advocates and family law attorneys means a child will get a fair shot in court, he said.

"I feel confident that it would be highly unlikely that the checks that are in place in Allegheny County would totally collapse like it did in Luzerne County," he said.

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