ALLENTOWN, Pa .– The former mayor of a Pennsylvania town serving a 15-year prison sentence for public corruption told a newspaper his life behind bars was “a bit like being a mayor but for a lot less money”.
Former Allentown Mayor Ed Pawlowski spent more than a year in a low-security prison camp in Danbury, Connecticut, following his conviction in October 2018. Pawlowski had just started his fourth term when he was convicted of rigging municipal contracts as part of a scheme to raise funds for his political campaigns for a higher post.
Since being locked up, Pawlowski, 54, said he has had a busy schedule that includes drumming in several groups, teaching a course on government, learning foreign languages ​​and participation in spin and yoga classes.
“The only good thing about jail is that it got me in shape,” Pawlowski wrote, responding to an interview request from The (Allentown) Morning Call, in a letter to the newspaper. He said he had lost 30 pounds.
The former mayor said he spent afternoons and weekends at the prison law library, where he worked on a call. He said he also helps detainees with immigration documents and presidential pardon requests.
“I’m just thinking about skipping law school and taking the bar exam when I get out,” he joked, saying he had become “a real lawyer.”
Pawlowski also wrote that he is the former head of the prison church, leads a Bible study, and oversees a team of 15 men who clean up his unit.
“It’s a bit like being a mayor but for a lot less money,” Pawlowski wrote. “I get all the complaints, I work with the bureaucracy to get things done and I try to motivate people to keep our living environment livable.”
Pawlowski, who is due out of prison in 2031, said he has started writing a book about the experience.
A jury found out that Pawlowski had coerced Allentown town vendors into contributing to his failed campaigns for Governor and the U.S. Senate, orchestrating a plan to rig contracts for legal, engineering, technology and construction work. construction. Pawlowski has been convicted of dozens of federal charges, including conspiracy, bribery, fraud, attempted extortion and lying to the FBI.
He denied any wrongdoing.
