President Joe Biden commuted disgraced kids-for-cash scandal judge Michael T. Conahan’s lengthy sentence Thursday, allowing him to go entirely free 20 months early.
Conahan, 72, a former Luzerne County judge, was among 1,499 people whom Biden granted clemency and another 39 pardoned for non-violent crimes.
Senior U.S. District Judge Edwin M. Kosik, who has since died, sentenced Conahan in September 2011 to 17½ years in a federal prison for his role in the scandal.
Conahan has lived under house arrest since June 2020 under the jurisdiction of federal prison authorities in Florida. He requested release to home confinement amid the COVID-19 pandemic because of concerns about his health.
Conahan pleaded guilty to a single racketeering conspiracy charge in July 2010.
Conahan and former Luzerne County President Judge Mark Ciavarella took part in a conspiracy that netted them $2.8 million, according to their federal indictment. They facilitated the construction of juvenile detention centers and expansion of another by agreeing to send convicted juveniles to them in exchange for the cash, according to the indictment.
Ciavarella, 76, was convicted after a trial in February 2011. Kosik sentenced him to 28 years in prison. He remains in a medium-security prison in Butner, North Carolina.
The case rocked the state’s juvenile justice system and led to reforms, full treatment in one documentary and a mention in another.
Earlier this year, Conahan asked Senior U.S. District Judge Robert D. Mariani to reduce his sentence, arguing his good behavior as an inmate, his legal aid to fellow inmates and lack of a previous criminal history warranted early release.
Mariani acknowledged Conahan’s circumstances, but denied the request.
“However, these activities cannot diminish (Conahan’s) extensive criminal conduct, its widespread reverberations, and, most importantly, the irrevocable harm caused,” Mariani wrote.
Releasing Conahan early “would undermine respect for the law and would not adequately deter such conduct,” Mariani wrote.
In a statement, the White House justified Biden’s decision by issuing a statement that says he commuted the sentences of “close to 1,500 individuals who were placed on home confinement during the COVID-19 pandemic and who have successfully reintegrated into their families and communities.”
