Corrine Brown Begins Serving 5 Year Sentence

Former Congresswoman Corrine Brown began serving a five-year sentence yesterday.  Convicted last month of fraud and other charges, the 24-year veteran of Congress was found guilty of converting $800,000 intended for needy students to her own personal and political use.

On March 4, 2016, Carla Wiley, president of the charity that received the $800,000, pled guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud after it was determined that she and Brown’s Chief of Staff, Ronnie Simmons, worked together to move money out of the charity’s accounts.  Some they spent, some they transferred to Brown.  Simmons pled guilty and is already serving his 4 year sentence.

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Brown will serve her time in the Coleman correctional complex — the largest federal prison in the country, housing more than 6,600 prisoners.  She will be housed in the low-security prison camp, separate from the high and medium security areas.  The low-security area has no walls and no fences.  Inmates there are for the most part serving five to 10 years for nonviolent crimes.  The doors are not locked, so authorities do frequent head counts, but it’s prison, and Brown will live in a two- or four-woman room with a small locker for all her possessions.

With good behavior the earliest Brown could be released would be April 2022, after serving four years and three months.  She is appealing her conviction.  She asked to be released on bond while her case is on appeal, but U.S. District Judge Timothy Corrigan refused her request.