Those affected by a corrupt arrangement involving two Pennsylvania judges who orchestrated the incarceration of numerous minors in exchange for financial kickbacks are voicing strong opposition to President Joe Biden’s recent decision to commute the sentence of one of these judges.
Michael Conahan, a former judge in Luzerne County, admitted to federal racketeering charges in 2010 and received a sentence exceeding 17 years. This came after he and his accomplice, Mark Ciavarella, closed a publicly operated juvenile detention center, only to channel nearly $3 million from the constructor and co-owner of private detention facilities into which they placed children, some as young as eight years old.
Amanda Lorah, who was sentenced by Conahan to five years in a juvenile facility following an altercation in high school, expressed her dismay to WBRE: “It’s a big slap in the face for us once again.”
Sandy Fonzo, whose son tragically took his own life after being sentenced to juvenile detention, shared her anguish: “I am shocked and I am hurt. 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,” Fonzo continued. “Right now I am processing and doing the best I can to cope with the pain that this has brought back.”
Many of those impacted by Conahan’s rulings were first-time or minor offenders. The Pennsylvania Supreme Court eventually invalidated thousands of these cases. Ciavarella, meanwhile, remains in prison with a 28-year sentence for his involvement in the scandal.
Conahan, now 72 and previously under house arrest since his transfer from prison during the Covid-19 pandemic, was among approximately 1,500 individuals granted commutations or pardons by Biden that Thursday. While this broad gesture was praised by advocates of criminal justice reform, many criticized the president for not extending clemency to any of the 40 men on federal death row. Others urged Biden, who had just pardoned his son Hunter Biden earlier in the month after vowing not to, to consider granting clemency to figures like Indigenous activist Leonard Peltier and environmental attorney Steven Donziger.
“There’s never going to be any closure for us.”
Lorah questioned the fairness of Biden’s actions, “So he wants to talk about Conahan and everybody else, but what is Joe Biden doing for all of these kids who absolutely got nothing, and almost no justice in this whole thing that happened? It’s nothing for us, but it seems that Conahan is just getting a slap on the wrist every which way he possibly could still today.”
“There’s never going to be any closure for us,” she added. “There’s never going to be, somehow, some way, these two men are always going to pop up, but now, when you think about the president of the United States letting him get away with this, who even wants to live in this country at this point? I’m totally shocked, I can’t believe this.”
