President Biden Commutes Sentence of Corrupt Judge Involved in ‘Kids-for-Cash’ Scandal
President Biden has sparked outrage among Pennsylvanians by commuting the sentence of a corrupt judge who was jailed for over 17 years for taking kickbacks in exchange for sending juveniles to for-profit detention facilities.
Former Judge Michael Conahan, 72, was released from prison in 2020 to home confinement due to COVID-19 health concerns with six years left in his sentence. Conahan pleaded guilty to one count of racketeering conspiracy in 2010 and was part of the “kids-for-cash” scandal, in which he and another judge, Mark Ciavarella, shut down a county-run juvenile detention center and shared $2.8 million in illegal payments with the builder and co-owner of two for-profit lockups.
The scandal, which is considered Pennsylvania’s largest-ever judicial corruption scheme, resulted in the state’s supreme court throwing out over 4,000 juvenile convictions involving over 2,300 kids.
Biden’s decision to commute Conahan’s sentence has raised questions as to why he would choose to pardon a judge who is detested in the area. Sandy Fonzo, whose son committed suicide after being placed in juvenile detention by Ciavarella, called the president’s action an “injustice” and “deeply painful.”
The scheme began in 2002 when Conahan shut down the state juvenile detention center and used money from the Luzerne County budget to fund a multimillion-dollar lease for the private facilities. Ciavarella, who presided over juvenile court, pushed a zero-tolerance policy that guaranteed large numbers of kids would be sent to the for-profit facilities.
Conahan’s sentence was commuted as part of the largest single-day act of clemency in modern history, in which Biden commuted jail sentences for nearly 1,500 people and granted 39 pardons. The decision has been met with widespread criticism and outrage from those affected by the scandal.
