Celebrity News January 09, 2015
Teresa Giudice's Prison Letters Reveal How She's Dealing with Reality
How is Teresa Giudice's first week of prison going? Pretty well, says her attorney.
The “Real Housewives of New Jersey Star” emailed her lawyer James J. Leonard with an update about how it's going.
He told People, "She's doing great. I got a series of emails from her and she is doing phenomenally. It seems like she is getting acclimated very well. She tells me that everybody is nice and everybody is treating her respectfully. She said both the staff and the inmates are being nice to her and that she is getting along fine."
He added that “she is looking forward to visits from her children," Gia, 13, Gabriela, 10, Milania, 8, and Audriana, 5. The girls are being looked after by their father Joe Giudice, while Teresa is incarcerated.
Leonard also clarified Teresa's early release date. On Thursday, her “Inmate Locator” on the Bureau of Prisons website said she would be released Feb. 5, 2016, two months shy of her 15-month sentence.
"Under federal law, every federal prisoner serves 85 percent of their sentence, unless they do something really egregious," he said. "So her 13-month release date – Feb. 5 – is actually 85 percent of her sentence."
He added, "Prisoners can also take six months or 10 percent off that 85 percent. So for her, 10 percent of 15 months is one and a half months, which puts that date in late December – just before Christmas."
The final month and a half she would still be considered a prisoner, but would have to serve her time at a half way house or on house arrest.
"Our goal is that Teresa will serve out the end of her sentence in home confinement in lieu of going to a halfway house. That is something that we are going to work toward."
