The ex-England player, jailed for six and a half years for grooming and two charges of sexual activity with a teenage girl, is claimed to have landed a "cushy" job in HMP Moorland.
The Sun has reported the 29-year-old, from Castle Eden, is working full time while taking a training course after he was transferred from Armley Jail in Leeds to the category C complex near Doncaster last month.
He is being kept in its sex offender unit and has his own cell.
It has also been reported he has avoided coaching football as staff were worried he could be injured if a fellow inmate targeted him.
Johnson, who earned £60,000 a week at Sunderland, has appealed against his conviction against one count of sexual activity with a child, which he was found guilty of at Bradford Crown Court following a trial.
He admitted one count of grooming and another of sexual activity with a child on the first day of his trial and was found not guilty of a third of the same charge.