Ex-Congressman Jesse Jackson Jr. Released From Halfway House As Sentence Winds Down

Jesse Jackson Jr. Is Almost Home Free

Disgraced former U.S. Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr. (D-Ill.) was released Monday morning from the Baltimore halfway house where he had been living since his release from federal prison in March.

The 50-year-old former congressman from Chicago was sentenced in October 2013 to 30 months in prison for misusing about $750,000 in campaign cash.

Jackson will serve home confinement at his Washington, D.C., residence until Sept. 20, when he's no longer under Bureau of Prisons supervision, according to the Chicago Tribune.

Jackson entered the halfway house in Baltimore on March 26 after about 17 months serving federal prison stints in North Carolina and Alabama. The former lawmaker had at least three months knocked off his sentence for completing a substance abuse program in prison.

Jackson, son of civil rights leader Jesse Jackson, will have to spend three years on supervised release and complete 500 hours of community service, the Associated Press reports.

Now that Jackson has been released from prison, his wife's turn is next.

Sandi Jackson was sentenced to a year in prison for falsifying tax returns. A judge allowed the the couple to serve their sentences consecutively so that one parent was free to care for their children, and Sandi Jackson must surrender once her husband is out of BOP supervision.

Prosecutors said Jackson and his wife, former Chicago Councilwoman Sandi Jackson, used the funds as their personal piggy bank, spending the cash on luxury items that included vacations, furs, Rolex watches and pricey Bruce Lee and Michael Jackson memorabilia.

Jackson cut the U.S. Marshals a check for $200,000 in restitution upon entering prison in 2013, and has been working to pay the rest of the debt through refinancing homes.

Jackson's once-promising political career began in 1995 when he started representing Illinois's 2nd congressional district, but ended with his resignation in 2012.

Before You Go

Dinner at CityZen in Washington, D.C., $466.30

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