Former Congressman Jesse Jackson Jr. will reportedly be released from federal prison on Thursday, where the son of civil rights leader has served 16 months of a 21/2-year sentence for spending hundreds of thousands of dollars of campaign funds on personal purchases.
The Illinois Democrat’s release date from the Montgomery, Alabama facility is listed as Sept. 20, 2015, but former U.S. Rep. Patrick Kennedy told the Associated Press that Jackson Jr. said during a visit that the date had been moved up to this Thursday. Jackson will reportedly serve the rest of his sentence—which began in Nov. 2013—in a halfway house in Washington, D.C. “Jackson’s wife was given a yearlong sentence for filing false tax returns related to her husband’s spending. In a concession to their school-age children, the judge allowed the Jacksons to stagger their prison terms, with him serving his sentence first,” according to the AP.
Jackson Jr. resigned from Congress in 2012 after taking an extended, unannounced leave, during which he was treated for depression.
