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After nearly nine years behind bars, former Luzerne County judge Michael Conahan has been released to his home in Florida, according to a source.

Conahan, 68, received the transfer through a federal Bureau of Prisons initiative focused on removing eligible inmates with coronavirus risk factors from its facilities, the source said.

A Hazleton native, Conahan has been incarcerated since September 2011 for his guilty plea to one count of racketeering conspiracy related to his acceptance of money in exchange for decisions that benefited two privately owned juvenile detention centers in a case that became known as “Kids for Cash.”

He was lodged at the Federal Correctional Complex at Coleman in Florida for a little more than five years and then transferred in March 2017 to a minimum security satellite camp in Miami, Fla.

His scheduled release date was Aug. 19, 2026, bureau records say.

Attorney General William Barr issued memos in March and April prioritizing home confinement as a response to the pandemic, where appropriate, for at-risk, non-violent inmates to protect the health and safety of prison personnel and the incarcerated.

Barr’s March memo spelled out some of the discretionary factors, which included priority to inmates residing in low and minimum security facilities with a record of good behavior who are more vulnerable to coronavirus under Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) guidelines.

Inmates also must have a sound re-entry plan, and prisons must look at the crime that prompted incarceration and assess the danger inmates would pose to the community, the memo said.

Since the release of Barr’s March memo, the bureau has placed 4,413 inmates on home confinement, a 155% increase, the bureau website says.

As of Monday, the bureau’s online inmate locator still listed Conahan at the Federal Correctional Institution (FCI) Miami.

The bureau cannot discuss “an individual inmate’s specific conditions of confinement, spokesman Emery Nelson said by email Monday.

“However, we can share that the Bureau of Prisons has authority to transfer inmates to their home on furlough for periods of time while they may continue to be considered for home confinement designation, or transfer inmates to community confinement overseen by a Residential Reentry Management Office,” Nelson wrote.

Community confinement means the inmate is in either home confinement or a Residential Reentry Center, commonly known as a halfway house, Nelson said.

Conahan could not be reached for comment Monday. He and his wife have a residence in Palm Beach County.

Under Conahan’s original plea agreement, he already would have been out of prison around the end of 2018 because federal prosecutors had agreed he would serve 87 months or a little more than seven years, according to prior published reports.

But in July 2009, then-U.S. District Judge Edwin Kosik rejected the original plea agreement that called for Conahan and former Luzerne County Judge Mark Ciavarella to plead guilty to honest services fraud and tax charges in exchange for 87-month prison sentences. Kosik had said he did not believe the former judges had adequately demonstrated they accepted responsibility for their conduct.

Conahan reached a second plea agreement with prosecutors in April 2010, which allowed a sentence of up to 20 years. Kosik, who died at age 94 in 2019, sentenced Conahan to 17.5 years and payment of $974,167 in restitution and fines.

Ciavarella, 70, is serving a 28-year sentence and currently housed at the Federal Correctional Institution in Ashland, Kentucky, with a scheduled release date of June 18, 2035, bureau records show.

Reach Jennifer Learn-Andes at 570-991-6388 or on Twitter @TLJenLearnAndes.