With less than two months left in his federal prison sentence, former Massey Energy CEO Don Blankenship has been moved to a halfway house in Phoenix, according to the U.S. Bureau of Prisons website.
The agency website says Blankenship is now housed at RRM Phoenix, a residential reentry management field office.
Blankenship, who turned 67 on March 14, was previously doing his time at Correctional Institute Taft near Bakersfield, California. It was not immediately clear when Blankenship was moved.
He is serving a one-year sentence after he was convicted of conspiring to violate federal mine safety standards at Massey's Upper Big Branch Mine, where 29 workers died in an April 2010 explosion. He is scheduled to be released from custody on May 10. He must also serve one year of supervised release.
The Bureau of Prisons says that halfway houses "provide assistance to inmates who are nearing release." It says the facilities provide "a safe, structured, supervised environment, as well as employment counseling, job placement, financial management assistance, and other programs and services." It says the facilities "help inmates gradually rebuild their ties to the community and facilitate supervising ex-offenders' activities during this readjustment phase."
In February, the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals turned down Blankenship's request for a rehearing on his appeal of his criminal conviction. He can still appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court. The deadline for that is in late May.