President Joe Biden has commuted the sentence of Michael Conahan, the former Pennsylvania judge convicted in the notorious “Kids for Cash” scandal. Conahan, now 72, was among nearly 1,500 individuals granted sentence commutations on Thursday, marking the largest number of such actions in a single day in U.S. history.
Conahan, a former Luzerne County judge, pleaded guilty in 2010 to racketeering conspiracy charges for his role in accepting $2.1 million in kickbacks in exchange for sending juveniles to for-profit detention centers. The scandal also implicated his co-defendant, former Luzerne County Judge Mark Ciavarella, and shocked the nation for its exploitation of vulnerable youth.
The “Kids for Cash” case revolved around Conahan and Ciavarella’s involvement in steering juvenile offenders to two privately operated detention facilities.
The judges received financial compensation for their decisions, which often involved harsh sentences for minor infractions. Many of the juveniles affected came from disadvantaged backgrounds and were given disproportionate sentences for relatively minor offenses, such as schoolyard fights or petty theft.
HEARTBREAKING moment Sandy Fonzo confronted a judge who was part of the kids-for-cash scheme where 2 judges were receiving millions of dollars to send kids to for-profit prisons.
Her son ended up