Biden’s commutation in ‘kids for cash’ scandal angers some Pennsylvania families

Associated Press

A judge who helped orchestrate a scheme to send children to for-profit jails in exchange for kickbacks was among the 1,500 people whose sentences were commuted by President Joe Biden this week. Biden’s decision to commute the 17-year prison sentence of Michael Conahan angered many in northeastern Pennsylvania, from the governor to the families whose children were victimized by the disgraced former judge. What became known as the “kids for cash” scandal is considered one of the worst judicial scandals in U.S. history. It led the Pennsylvania Supreme Court to throw out some 4,000 juvenile convictions. Conahan was sentenced in 2011 and had already served much of it.