Jesse Jackson Jr. Knows How To Clean A Toilet

By Chuck Sudo in News on May 14, 2014 8:30PM

Photo credit: Win McNamee/Getty Images News

Disgraced former congressman Jesse Jackson Jr. can’t be accused of having idle hands while he serves his prison sentence for corruption charges. Jackson has become quite adept at scrubbing toilets, showers and sinks, according to a letter from a fellow inmate obtained by NBC 5.

The letter was part of a package sent by Jackson to the Obama administration seeking pardons for all ex-offenders. John Karoly, a former attorney from Pennsylvania who served time with Jackson at the Federal Correction Center in Butner, N.C. before Jackson was transferred to an Alabama prison in March, wrote Jackson did a “fastidious job” making that porcelain shine.

"I later learn the inmate considers this a part of his personal penance. ... But no matter how hard he scrubs, he later tells me that it doesn't wipe his slate clean. He has embarrassed himself, his family name, and all those who counted on him to be different. Like the rest of us, he yearns for the forgiveness that has eluded him."

Karoly said Jackson also considers his attention to housekeeping part of a journey to encourage the president to grant pardons for all ex-offenders. (Ostensibly, this would also include Jackson.)

"Jesse had an idea which is revolutionary," Karoly wrote. "Give each and every ex-offender who has done their time and paid their full debt to society a new life, a real second chance."

"When you pay off your credit card debt in full, you no longer owe anything. ... The full utilization of the president's power to forgive may be the greatest legacy any president can leave behind."

Jackson is serving a 30-month sentence but he could be released as early as the end of the year if he completes a drug and alcohol treatment program and receives time off or good behavior. We’ll leave it to you to assume if this request for pardons is genuine or intended to get him out from behind bars sooner.