Biden gives clemency to "kids-for-cash" judge by Staff Writer - January, 2025
In 2008, judge Michael Conahan was convicted of accepting approximately $2.8 million in return for imposing excessively long sentences on juveniles to increase profits at privately run children's prisons in Pennsylvania. Conahan along with another judge, Mark Ciavarella sent more than 2,300 children, some as young as 8-years-old to facilities run by PA Child Care. Many of the children were imprisoned on minor charges, such as mocking an assistant principal on social media or trespassing in a vacant building.