Jesse Jackson Jr. To Be Released From Prison, Head To Halfway House

By aaroncynic in News on Mar 25, 2015 1:30PM

Photo credit: Win McNamee/Getty Images News

Former congressman Jesse Jackson Jr. will be released from prison tomorrow, according to a report by the Associated Press. Former representative Patrick Kennedy spoke with the AP after he visited Jackson at the minimum-security federal prison camp in Montgomery, Alabama where he is currently serving a 30-month sentence on corruption charges.

Kennedy told USA Today:

"I went in there to say hello and catch up and tell him that I wanted to be there for him when he came out. And he told me, 'Guess what? I'm going to be out in almost 48 hours.'”

Jackson plead guilty in 2013 to spending $750,000 in campaign funds for personal use, which he used to buy luxury items like fur capes, a $4,600 fedora and a $43,000 Rolex, home improvements and tens of thousands of dollars in celebrity memorabilia. He began his sentence in October of 2013. His wife, Sandi Jackson, was sentenced to one year in prison, to be served after his is completed, for filing false tax returns.

Kennedy said that Jackson told him he’d be picked up from prison by his family, including his father, the Reverend Jesse Jackson, mother Jacqueline, his two children and wife, who will then transport him to a halfway house in Washington, D.C., where he will serve the remainder of his term. “He said he'd have to report with his probation officer and he'd have to get some kind of job and start to put his life back together,” said Kennedy.

A spokesperson for the Bureau of Prisons would not confirm with the AP that Jackson would be released, but USA Today reported an anonymous official said he would be.

Meanwhile, the former Congressman from Rhode Island also said that Jackson’s mental health was better than the last time they spoke in 2012, when Jackson checked himself into the Mayo Clinic for bipolar disorder. "He's a lot more at ease with his role and responsibility with what got him into jail,” said Kennedy. “He's also very excited about what lies ahead for him in the future, which I think is very hopeful.”