Among the 1,500 federal offenders whose home confinement sentences were commuted by President Joe Biden yesterday was a former judge who took millions of dollars in kickbacks to send teenagers to private juvenile detention centers.
The Citizens' Voice first reported that Biden had commuted the sentence of Michael Conahan, a former Pennsylvania judge who pleaded guilty to racketeering in 2011 for participating in an infamous "kids for cash" scheme. Conahan and another judge received nearly $3 million in kickbacks to increase the head counts at two juvenile detention centers, often sending teens upriver for minor disciplinary issues. Conahan was sentenced to 17 years in federal prison.
