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Former Luzerne County judge Michael Conahan was moved to a different federal prison in Florida, but it’s unclear if this is a temporary stop or final destination.
Conahan pleaded guilty in 2010 to a racketeering charge, acknowledging under oath that he illegally used his power as president judge to get kickbacks.
The 64-year-old has been housed at the Federal Correctional Complex at Coleman in Florida for five years and three months, or since November 2011. Coleman is a low-security site 46 miles northwest of Orlando.
Conahan was transferred Tuesday to the detention center at the Federal Correctional Institution in Tallahassee, Florida, according to the Federal Bureau of Prisons, which initiated the transfer.
This detention center houses up to 300 male offenders, most awaiting trial, sentencing or transfer, a bureau publication says.
The bureau does not disclose if detention center inmates are awaiting a transfer or specify planned destinations in advance, said agency spokesman Justin Long.
Conahan may now be eligible for placement in a minimum security institution, commonly called a federal prison camp, because he has less than a decade remaining on his sentence. His scheduled release date is Dec. 18, 2026.
Inmates in low-security prisons such as Coleman are locked in cells at night, and these facilities are surrounded by barbed-wire fencing, officials have said.
In comparison, prison camps have dormitory-style housing, limited or no perimeter fencing and more access to work and program opportunities, according to online information.
Ciavarella in Kentucky
Prosecutors said Conahan and former fellow judge Mark Ciavarella accepted $2.8 million in kickbacks from former attorney Robert Powell and local real estate developer Robert Mericle in exchange for decisions that benefited two juvenile detention centers co-owned by Powell and built by Mericle.
Court documents cited several examples of actions Conahan took as president judge to benefit the PA Child Care LLC and Western PA Child Care LLC centers:
• Signing a placement guarantee agreement in January 2002, promising an “absolute and unconditional” payment from the court to rent PA Child Care’s Pittston Township center for $1.3 million annually without obtaining the necessary approval from county commissioners. Prosecutors said Powell used this agreement to obtain financing to build the detention center.
• Removing funding from the county’s 2003 budget for the county-owned juvenile detention center on River Street in Wilkes-Barre, essentially closing the facility and forcing the county to use the Pittston Township center.
• Sealing a trade-secrets lawsuit filed by PA Child Care against the late former county controller Steve Flood and two state welfare officials in December 2004. The lawsuit was over the release of an audit critical of the county’s leasing of the Pittston Township site.
Ciavarella, 66, is at the low-security Federal Correctional Institution at Ashland in Kentucky, with a scheduled release date of Dec. 30, 2035.
Mericle pleaded guilty in 2009 to withholding information about the commission of a felony for aiding Ciavarella and Conahan in disguising the source of approximately $2.1 million in finder’s fees he paid to them. He completed a 12-month prison sentence in April 2015.
Powell completed his 18-month prison term in April 2013 for failing to report illegal activity by the two judges.
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