PROVIDENCE, R.I. (AP) – Former U.S. Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr. will be released from a federal prison on Thursday and will serve out the remainder of his term in a Washington, D.C., halfway house, former U.S. Rep. Patrick Kennedy told The Associated Press after visiting Jackson.
Kennedy said he spoke with Jackson at the minimum security federal prison camp in Montgomery, Alabama, where the son of the civil rights leader has been serving a 2 ½-year sentence after pleading guilty to illegally spending $750,000 in campaign funds on personal items.
Jackson, an Illinois Democrat, began the sentence on Nov. 1, 2013. The U.S. Bureau of Prisons lists his release date as Sept. 20, 2015.
Kennedy said he was in the area giving a speech on children’s mental health and decided to visit Jackson on Monday.
“You can imagine my surprise when I’m there, and I’m talking to him, and he says, ‘I’m leaving Thursday morning,'” Kennedy told the AP.