Former Luzerne County Judge Michael T. Conahan, who gained notoriety for wrongfully imprisoning juveniles in the Kids-for-Cash scandal, is one of nearly 1,500 inmates whose sentences President Joe Biden commuted Thursday as his term in office comes to a close.
Conahan, 72, was convicted along with former judge Mark A. Ciavarella Jr., 74, of funneling juvenile defendants to two private, for-profit detention centers in exchange for $2.1 million in kickbacks.
Conahan pleaded guilty to racketeering conspiracy charges and was sentenced in 2011 to 17½ years in prison. However, he petitioned the courts for a “compassionate release” during the COVID-19 pandemic, writing that he was “in grave danger of not only contracting the virus, but of dying from the virus.”
He was released to home confinement in Florida under federal supervision in June 2020.A clemency recipient list the White House issued Thursday shows Conahan’s case is one of 1,499 commutations the outgoing president granted.
In a prepared statement, Biden said the commutations were granted because the defendants “would receive lower sentences if charged under today’s laws, policies, and practices.”
“These commutation recipients, who were placed on home confinement during the COVID pandemic, have successfully reintegrated into their families and communities and have shown that they deserve a second chance,” Biden said.
In a separate statement, White House officials said Biden is granting clemency to nonviolent offenders “who were sentenced under outdated laws, policies, and practices.”
“The nearly 1,500 individuals who received commutations today have been serving their sentences at home for at least one year under the COVID-era CARES Act,” officials said in a statement. “These Americans have been reunited with their families and shown their commitment to rehabilitation by securing employment and advancing their education. The 39 individuals receiving pardons today were convicted of non-violent crimes, including drug offenses, and have turned their lives around.”
Sandy Fonzo, who famously confronted Ciavarella outside federal court over the suicide of her son after he was placed in juvenile detention, called the development “deeply painful.”
“I am shocked and I am hurt,” Fonzo said in a statement. “Conahan‘s actions destroyed families, including mine, and my son‘s death is a tragic reminder of the consequences of his abuse of power. 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.”
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The judges were convicted of accepting millions in kickbacks in exchange for populating for-profit juvenile prisons with offenders whose sentences were often disproportionate to their crimes.
The scheme involved a former Drums attorney, Robert Powell, paying $770,000 to Ciavarella and Conahan, who in turn funneled juvenile defendants to two private, for-profit detention centers Powell partly owned.
Powell served an 18-month prison sentence after pleading guilty to felony counts of failing to report a felony and being an accessory to a conspiracy.
Wealthy real estate developer Robert K. Mericle, who paid $2.1 million to the judges, was charged with failing to disclose to investigators and a grand jury that he knew the judges were defrauding the government by failing to report the money on their taxes. Mericle served one year in federal prison.
In March 2015, Powell reached a settlement with the juvenile defendants imprisoned in the case, agreeing to an initial $4.75 million payment and another payment of up to $2.75 million.
Ciavarella is serving a 28-year prison sentence at Federal Correctional Institution-Ashland in Kentucky on honest services mail fraud charges.
He is scheduled to be released June 18, 2034.
