The whole of youth protection services and law enforcement for an entire state got caught running such a racket, imprisoning kids for money from the state, with the judges receiving kickbacks.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kids_for_cash_scandal

Needless to say, although the criminal records for these kids got expunged (after 15 years, WAY too late and didn't mean anything anymore, and already had caused maximum damage on these kids' lives), no restitution was paid (yes kids have a criminal record. It just gets blanked on their 18th birthday)

Needless to say, the actual crime the state, the judges, a private detention facility, public school employees, and ... participated in was kidnapping and abusing 2401 kids for a combined 380 years. The normal restitution payment for wrongful imprisonment is $50,000 per year, or in this case the state would normally owe these kids 19 million dollars, or about 8,000 dollar per kid (average). NOTHING was paid by the state for imprisoning kids through corruption for decades (plural). Oh and the private detention facility not only got to keep all the money, they are still in business.

If a private person had committed such a crime, holding 2401 kids for a combined 380 years, the punishment would obviously be unimaginable. Hell, such a case would make people would ask "is there a death penalty in Pennsylvania?" (there is)

The punishment for public servants? Everyone involved went free except one of the judges (he did not just corruptly imprison kids, he committed tax evasion), 3 people lost their jobs, and everyone kept all money that had changed hands.

They can all be judges again. The ONE person that got imprisoned retired in Florida (one of the 3 judges, the one that did not just hurt kids, but also committed tax fraud). He was physically attacked many times, even in Florida. He moved to Florida because the police in Pennsylvania after the first few attacks refused to file charges against his attackers, even when they involved week-long hospital recovery stays.

I utterly hate Trump, but it's relevant to add: Biden pardoned him.

So when you say "judge", is this the sort of people you are talking about? When you say "politician" would that be the state legislature members that voted a law specifically to exempt everyone from prosecution in this case (that's why only the tax fraud judge got "imprisoned")? And when you say "law enforcement officers", do you mean the people that helped and committed violence against kids to safeguard the money?

I say that, because this was declared, by elected officials, to NOT be a criminal conspiracy. In fact they voted in a law SPECIFICALLY to make sure this could not be considered a criminal conspiracy. So your standards need adjusting.

Frankly, as soon as you look into it, you're going to find that governments see law as something that applies to other people, not to them. Not in small things. Not in large things. And once you see this, you will notice the small things constantly (like public vs private busses behavior, to name something so small it's almost ridiculous, yet obviously it's constant crimes) ...

And, of course, this was not the only state this happened.