Former Lucerne District Judge Michael T. Conahan, who became infamous for wrongfully detaining teenagers in the Kids for Cash scandal, is one of nearly 1,500 inmates whose sentences President Joe Biden commuted on Thursday at the end of his term.

Conahan, 72, was convicted along with former judge Mark A. Ciavarella Jr., 74, of sending juvenile defendants to two private, for-profit detention centers in exchange for $2.1 million in bribes.

Conahan pleaded guilty to conspiracy charges and was sentenced to 17½ years in prison in 2011. However, during the COVID-19 pandemic, he petitioned the courts for a “compassionate release,” writing that he was “not only in grave danger of contracting the virus, but of dying from it.”