Biden commutes sentence of disgraced PA judge who sent kids to jail for $2.1 MILLION in kickbacks

President Biden commuted the sentence of the disgraced Pennsylvania judge who was convicted of sending juveniles to for-profit detention centers in exchange for $2.1 million in kickbacks. Michael Conahan, 72, a former Luzerne County judge, was among the nearly 1,500 people who were granted commutations on Thursday.

Conahan pleaded guilty to one count of racketeering conspiracy in April 2010, receiving a sentence of 17.5 years in prison for accepting money in exchange for decisions that benefited two privately run juvenile detention facilities, the Times Leader reported. This case became widely known as "Kids for Cash," in which Conahan and his co-defendant former Luzerne County Judge Mark Ciavarella sent juveniles to detention centers in exchange for cash.

Conahan served a little over five years at the Federal Correctional Complex at Coleman in Florida, and was moved to a minimum security satellite camp in Miami in March 2017. As part of a federal Bureau of Prisons initiative aimed at removing eligible, non-violent detainees from federal facilities during the pandemic, Conahan has been on home confinement at his Florida residence since June 2020, following nearly nine years behind bars.

Conahan's initial plea deal called for him to serve 87 months or slightly more than seven years in jail, which would have released him near the end of 2018. However, the initial plea deal, which called for Conahan and Ciavarella to enter guilty pleas to honest services fraud and tax charges in exchange for 87-month prison sentences, was rejected by then-US District Judge Edwin Kosik in July 2009. Kosik rejected the plea agreement, arguing that the defendants had not sufficiently shown that they took ownership of their actions. He issued a 17.5-year prison sentence for Conahan and $974,167 in restitution and fines.

Records show that Ciavarella is scheduled to be released from prison in June 2034. He has been lodged at the Butner Medium 1 Federal Correctional Institution in North Carolina and did not receive a commutation from President Biden.

In his statement released by the White House, Biden announced that the nearly 1,500 commutations he granted to Americans was the highest ever in one day. According to the statement, those on the list have been completing their sentences under the COVID-era CARES Act at home for a minimum of a year. He emphasized his belief that the US is "a nation of second chances" and stated that they have "shown their commitment to rehabilitation." A Chinese national convicted of possessing more than 47,000 files of child pornography also received a commutation.