Wife of ex US Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr. reports to prison for 1 year term tied to campaign funds
By Michael Tarm
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
CHICAGO _ The wife of former U.S. Congressman Jesse Jackson Jr. reported to prison Tuesday, the second half of the once-powerful political couple to serve time for convictions tied to $750,000 in lavish illegal spending of campaign money on items from furs to vacations.
Sandi Jackson, herself a former Chicago city councilwoman, presented herself at the Federal Prison Camp at Alderson in West Virginia to begin serving a one-year sentence for filing false income tax returns, the U.S. Bureau of Prisons said in an emailed statement.
She starts her prison term one month after her husband completed his 2 1/2 year sentence on a fraud conviction for the illegally spending. The judge who sentenced both of them in 2013 after they reached plea deals with prosecutors allowed the Jacksons to stagger their sentences in a concession to their two school-aged children.
Sandi Jackson, 52 and, like her husband, a Democrat, will serve her time about 250 miles (400 kilometres)west of Washington, D.C., where the Jacksons have made their home in recent years.
Jesse Jackson Jr., 50 and the son of civil rights leader Rev. Jesse Jackson, served in Congress from 1995 until he resigned in November 2012, ending a once-promising political career. He left Congress that June, and his staff eventually confirmed that he took a medical leave for treatment of bipolar disorder and other issues.
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