About The District

The Middle District of Pennsylvania extends over 21,907 square miles (approximately 47% of the state) from the New York border in the north to the Maryland border in the south. The District contains 33 counties with approximately 3.2 million residents and includes the Scranton, Wilkes-Barre, Lebanon, Harrisburg, Carlisle, Williamsport, and State College urban areas.

The following counties are in the District: Adams, Bradford, Cameron, Carbon, Centre, Clinton, Columbia, Cumberland, Dauphin, Franklin, Fulton, Huntingdon, Juniata, Lackawanna, Lebanon, Luzerne, Lycoming, Mifflin, Monroe, Montour, Northumberland, Perry, Pike, Potter, Schuylkill, Snyder, Susquehanna, Sullivan, Tioga, Union, Wayne, Wyoming, and York.

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Federal institutions and enclaves within the district include: Delaware Water Gap National Recreation Area, Steamtown National Recreation Center, Tobyhanna Army Depot, Veterans Administration Hospital Wilkes-Barre, Tioga-Hammond Lakes Dams, U.S. Army War College and Carlisle Barracks, the Navy Inventory Control Point, in Mechanicsburg, the New Cumberland Army Depot, Fort Indiantown Gap, Veterans Administration Hospital Lebanon, Raystown National Recreation Area, Letterkenny Army Depot, and Gettysburg National Military Park.

A major component of the office's workload arises from the presence in the district of four major federal correctional complexes: Allenwood, Canaan, Lewisburg, and Schuylkill. With a population of approximately 8,700 inmates, the facilities constitute one of the largest concentration of federal prison populations in the country. In addition, over a thousand immigration and customs enforcement detainees are presently housed in county facilities in the district.  The U.S. Attorney’s Office represents the United States in all legal proceedings resulting from petitions and pleadings filed by inmates at these facilities as well as the prosecution of criminal cases involving the Bureau of Prisons facilities.

In the Harrisburg area, the district contains the state capital and main offices of Pennsylvania state government agencies as well as a major concentration of health care insurers and contractors. The coverage of the Williamsport office includes several of the correctional complexes mentioned above, as well as, the main campus of Penn State University and its' extensive government-funded research facilities.

Assistant U.S. Attorneys in the Middle District appear in court in federal courthouses in Scranton, Harrisburg, Williamsport, and Wilkes-Barre.  The district currently has 13 U.S. District Court Judges and five U.S. Magistrate Judges.  U.S. Bankruptcy Courts are located in Wilkes-Barre and Harrisburg.

The physical size of the district and the locations of its federal court facilities and offices make frequent travel by the office staff an essential requirement for effective management as well as litigation.