Biden commutes sentence of disgraced ‘Kids for Cash’ judge Michael Conahan

A disgraced Pennsylvania judge sentenced to more than 17 years in prison for accepting money to send young offenders to privately run juvenile detention centers is now a free man.

On Thursday, President Joe Biden commuted the sentence of former Luzerne County Judge Michael T. Conahan, one of two judges convicted for their roles in the shocking bribery scheme known as “Kids for Cash.”

Conahan, 72, and fellow Luzerne County Judge Mark Arthur Ciavarella Jr., 74,  shut down a county-run juvenile detention facility and accepted $2.8 million in kickbacks from the builder and co-owner of two for-profit lockups in Pennsylvania.

The former judges then sent children as young as 8 years old to the privately run facilities. Some of the young offenders had been charged with misdemeanors, including making fun of an assistant principal on social media.

The scheme has often been described as the worst judicial scandal in Pennsylvania history.

Conahan pleaded guilty to racketeering conspiracy charges. He was sentenced to 17.5 years in prison in September 2011, but was sent to home confinement in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

On Thursday, Conahan became one of nearly 1,500 people who had their convictions commuted by Biden, which the White House described as the biggest single-day act of clemency in the nation’s history.

“America was built on the promise of possibility and second chances,” the president said in a statement, adding he’s had “the great privilege of extending mercy to people who have demonstrated remorse and rehabilitation.”

Biden’s announcement came as a shock to some of the victims affected by the scandal, who saw the president’s move as “deeply painful.”

“It’s a big slap in the face for us once again,” Amanda Lorah, one of the thousands of kids wrongfully imprisoned as part of the scheme, told local NBC affiliate WBRE.

Sandy Fonzo, whose son died by suicide in 2010 after he was placed in juvenile detention, said she was “shocked and hurt.”

“Conahan‘s actions destroyed families, including mine, and my son‘s death is a tragic reminder of the consequences of his abuse of power,” Fonzo told the Citizen Voice. “This pardon feels like an injustice for all of us who still suffer. Right now I am processing and doing the best I can to cope with the pain that this has brought back.”

Ciavarella, the other judge in the scheme, was sentenced in 2011 to 28 years behind bars. In 2021, he filed a motion seeking compassionate release citing health issues, but that request was denied.