Joe Biden has commuted the sentence of the infamous Judge Michael Conahan, who was sentenced on racketeering and conspiracy charges in the notorious "kids-for-cash" scandal which saw Conahan unjustly imprisoning juveniles over the course of years in order to receive over $2.1 million in kickbacks from private prison systems owned by businessman Robert Powell. Conahan's crimes were called "the greatest scandal in the history of the State of Pennsylvania" and "a black mark upon the judicial record of the United States" by the media and US Federal Attorney for PA, Peter Smith, in 2011. Conahan was originally meant to serve time until 2029.