(meant to post this last week)
https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2024/12/15/biden-clemency-kids-for-cash-judge/
My jaw dropped when I saw Michael
Conahan, a former judge involved in a notorious “kids for cash” scandal in
Pennsylvania, among the nearly 1,500 people President Joe Biden granted
clemency to last week. The White House portrayed the mass clemency as a historic
moment for justice. But Conahan’s commutation only underscores how broken the
presidential pardon and clemency process is.
I don’t know much about most of the
people on Biden’s list, but I do know a fair amount about Conahan. I started my
career as a journalist in Pennsylvania and had a front-row seat when the scheme
— one of the worst corruption scandals in U.S. juvenile justice history — came
to light in 2008 and 2009.
Conahan and fellow judge Mark
Ciavarella Jr. were accused of receiving cash kickbacks in exchange for helping
to construct two for-profit juvenile detention facilities in Luzerne County and
then sentencing young people to those facilities to keep them full. In total,
they received more than $2.8 million, court documents show. They didn’t do this
a handful of times. They did it to more than 2,500 juveniles over five years.
And the worst part? To maximize the
payout, they often gave kids the harshest possible sentence. Young people who
were first-time offenders and probably should have received a warning or
community service would end up locked up. Some were younger than 13. What the
judges did caused tremendous harm to thousands of young people and their
families. One young man died by suicide. Many youths became depressed and
dropped out of high school.
…
Such dubious grants of presidential mercy reinforce a belief that America has a two-tiered justice system where the wealthy and connected fare much better than everyone else — and certainly better than the young people who came before Judges Conahan and Ciavarella in Luzerne County.
