Ex-Ald. Sandi Jackson released from prison

Former Chicago Ald. Sandi Jackson, the wife of former Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr., has been released early from federal prison, according to Bureau of Prisons records, the Chicago Sun-Times is reporting.

Jackson, 53, had been serving her one-year sentence in a West Virginia facility and had been scheduled for release on Oct. 18, records show.

Jackson arrived at Alderson, a minimum-security federal prison camp in southern West Virginia on Oct. 20, 2015.

Sandi and Jesse Jackson both pled guilty in August, 2013 to various schemes relating to the looting of his campaign warchest. The one-time South Side alderman and the former lawmaker were sent to prison for diverting $750,000 from campaign funds for personal use between 2005 and 2012.

Jesse Jackson Jr. was handed a 30-month sentence. With time off for good behavior and completion of a substance-abuse program, he only served 23 months, wrapping up on Sept. 18, 2015 and returning to Washington DC, where the couple own a home in the DuPont Circle neighborhood. A judge allowed the Jacksons’ to stagger their sentences so one parent could remain  with their son and daughter.

Sandi Jackson pleaded guilty to filing false federal income tax returns. She had been Jesse Jackson Jr.’s  treasurer of his campaign fund from January, 2005 to November, 2006. Starting in 2008, Sandi Jackson was paid $60,000 a year to be a paid consultant to her husband’s campaign; in 2011 she was the campaign manager.

U.S. District Court Judge Amy Berman Jackson (no relation) said at Sandi Jackson’s sentencing,  “You are standing here today to be sentenced because of your own significant and repeated involvement in the illegal conduct and the falsifications that brought the unreported income into your checking account in the first place.”