President Joe Biden has faced criticism from victims of the so-called “Kids for Cash” scandal for commuting the sentence of a Pennsylvania judge involved in the scheme.
Michael Conahan was among the nearly 1,500 people placed under home confinement during the COVID-19 pandemic that Biden announced Thursday would have their sentences commuted.
Conahan was jailed alongside fellow Democrat judge Mark Ciavarella for sending thousands of children to privately run juvenile centers with disproportionate sentences in exchange for millions of dollars in kickbacks. Conahan was sentenced to 17.5 years in prison in 2011 after pleading guilty to racketeering conspiracy. He was released to home confinement under federal supervision in June 2020 with six years remaining on his sentence.
Sandy Fonzo, whose son died by suicide at age 23 after Ciavarella placed him in juvenile detention at age 17 for a minor drug paraphernalia charge, described Biden’s commuting of Conahan’s sentence as “deeply painful.”
“I am shocked and I am hurt,” Fonzo said in a statement to The Citizens’ Voice, a local Pennsylvania newspaper. “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.”
Biden set a new daily record for presidential clemencies when he announced 39 pardons and 1,499 commutations. The sweeping act comes as Biden faces pressure to pardon more individuals after he pardoned his son, Hunter Biden, from federal tax and gun charges.
Newsweek contacted the White House and Conahan’s lawyer for comment via email outside regular working hours.
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Amanda Lorah, who was detained for nearly five years in a Pennsylvania juvenile detention facility by Ciavarella for assaulting a girl at her school gym, also condemned Biden’s move.
“It’s a big slap in the face for us once again,” Lorah told local news channel WBRE/WYOU. “We had no opportunity to have any time taken off our sentences. We had no one to talk to, but now we’re talking about the president of the United States doing this. What about all of us?”
The White House said that those whose sentences were commuted had been placed in home confinement during the COVID-19 pandemic and since “successfully reintegrated into their families and communities and have shown that they deserve a second chance.”
Lorah said that juveniles who received extended stays in detention centers because of Conahan and Ciavarella’s actions have not received the same level of justice.
“So he wants to talk about Conahan and everybody else, but what is Joe Biden doing for all of these kids who got nothing and almost no justice in this whole thing?” Lorah said. “It’s nothing for us, but it seems like Conahan is just getting a slap on the wrist every which way he possibly could even today.”
Democratic Representative Ayanna Pressley of Massachusetts, who had urged Biden to issue more pardons, praised the president’s sweeping commuting announcement.
“By taking this meaningful and historic action, President Biden is changing the lives of nearly 1,500 people and ensuring they can remain in the community with their loved ones,” Pressley said. “People on home confinement are disproportionately elderly, chronically ill, pose no threat to public safety, and have successfully reintegrated into their communities.”
Ciavarella was sentenced to 28 years in prison in 2011 after being convicted by a jury of 12 counts of racketeering and conspiracy.
The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Middle District of Pennsylvania described the judicial scandal involving Conahan and Ciavarella as the “worst in Pennsylvania’s history.”
The Pennsylvania Supreme Court later vacated thousands of juvenile convictions handed down by the two judges.
