Former Allentown Mayor Ed Pawlowski, who was sentenced to 15 years in prison in 2018 after his conviction on 47 charges including corruption and wire fraud, said he will be released from federal prison on June 25, after serving about half his sentence.
In a message to The Morning Call via the prison messaging service CorrLinks, Pawlowski said he will be released into a halfway house in Philadelphia for several months, followed by a period of home confinement in Allentown.
He is seeking employment in Allentown, and would have the ability to commute to Allentown from his halfway house if he secures a position, he said.
Pawlowski told The Morning Call he is being released early because he earned “good behavior” credits via the First Steps Act, a 2018 law that allows inmates to shave time off their prison sentences by participating in rehabilitation and other programs.
In an interview with The Morning Call in 2023, Pawlowski said he was leading a Bible study among his fellow inmates, teaching GED classes and participating in a service dog training program. He is being held at the Federal Correctional Institution in Otisville, New York. The federal inmate database still lists the 61-year-old’s release date as August 2030.
As part of an FBI probe into Allentown City Hall corruption, Pawlowski and five co-defendants were charged for pay-to-play contract schemes between 2012 and 2015. Investigators found that Pawlowski and his co-conspirators steered city contracts toward donors to his campaign.
Pawlowski was found guilty on multiple counts of conspiracy, bribery, mail fraud, wire fraud and other charges. He was sentenced to 15 years in federal prison in 2018. His co-defendants pleaded guilty and received lighter charges as a result.
Pawlowksi consistently maintained his innocence, but in 2024, while seeking a commutation from President Joe Biden, he issued an apology letter, saying he fell under the influence of “corrupt campaign consultants” who helped run his unsuccessful campaigns for higher office.
Pawlowski was mayor of Allentown from 2006 to 2018, winning reelection four times, including in the midst of the FBI probe. Before his time as Allentown’s mayor, he was executive director of the Lehigh Housing Development Corp., now known as the Alliance for Building Communities, and Allentown Director of Community and Economic Development under former Mayor Roy Afflerbach.