June 23, 2014

Former Congressman Jackson in Line for Early Prison Release
By Frederick H. Lowe

jesse-jackson-jr

Former Congressman Jesse Jackson Jr.

Special to the Trice Edney News Wire from TheNorthStarNews.com

(TriceEdneyWire.com) - Good behavior has cut former Congressman Jesse L. Jackson Jr.'s time behind bars. Jackson is scheduled to be released from prison on Sept. 20, 2015, a spokesperson for the Federal Bureau of Prisons today told The NorthStar News & Analysis.

Jackson, who is serving his sentence in the federal prison camp at Maxwell Air Force Base in Montgomery, Ala., had been scheduled to be released on Dec. 31, 2015.

U.S. District Court Judge Amy Berman Jackson sentenced Jackson to 30 months in prison for misusing $750,000 in campaign funds. Judge Jackson and the former congressman are not related.

Former Congressman Jackson transferred to the federal prison camp from the federal prison in Butner, N.C., where he began his sentence last October.

The Bureau of Prisons cut Jackson's prison time because of good time he had already earned and the good time he will earn in the future.

Inmates can earn up to 54 days of good time for each year they are in prison, reducing their sentences, the spokesperson said. They can lose good time for fighting and other infractions that violate prison regulations.

When Jackson completes his prison sentence, his wife, Sandra Stevens Jackson, a former Chicago Alderman, will begin her time behind bars. Judge Jackson sentenced Sandra Jackson to 12 months in prison.

Judge Jackson allowed the Jacksons to served staggered sentences with the former Congressman serving his sentence first, followed by Sandra Jackson. The judge allowed the arrangement so one parent could be with their two young children. Sandra Jackson pled guilty in February to filing false federal income tax returns on $570,000 from 2006 through 2011.

Jackson is the son of Rev. Jesse Jackson Sr., founder of the Rainbow/PUSH Coalition, which is based in Chicago.  His son represented Illinois 2nd Congressional District from 1995 to 2012.