Todd Chrisley made a request to be released from prison and placed under house arrest, but it was rejected, according to his attorney
Todd Chrisley’s request to be released from his minimum-security prison and placed under house arrest for the remainder of his sentence on bank fraud and tax evasion charges has been dismissed.
Speaking to People, attorney Jay Surgent said that the former reality star made “an application under the CARES Act to be released” into home confinement. However, “his application, as well as a number of other applications — but particularly his — was rejected.”
“He submitted it, but the person that was administrating it and was in charge of processing it, decided that she didn’t want to do that. She decided not to do it,” Surgent said.
“And then, the time period for the application expired, so he wasn’t given due consideration with reference to being admitted to home confinement or taken advantage of some type of a probationary program.”
First introduced in 2020, the Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security (CARES) Act allows prisoners to be placed in home confinement at the discretion of the director of the Bureau of Prisons.
Chrisley’s lawyer said that it was ” very, very unfortunate” that the request was rejected, but it is now “being investigated internally.”
“We feel as though there was no reason why it should have not been processed, even in light of his prison term,” Surgent added.
The “Chrisley Knows Best” star began his 12-year sentence at the Federal Prison Camp (FPC) Pensacola in Florida in January, after he and his wife, Julie Chrisley, were convicted of defrauding banks out of more than $30 million by providing fake financial statements to make them appear wealthier than they were.
Surgent’s comments come after the couple’s eldest children together spoke about the “nightmare” conditions at their parents’ minimum-security prisons.
On her podcast “Unlocked with Savannah Chrisley,” Savannah Chrisley and her brother Chase Chrisley said the facilities their parents are incarcerated in are not fit for purpose. The siblings said the prisons had “black mold, asbestos,” and snakes “slithering on the floor” in Julie’s case.
Chase also said: “They are both in states where it gets to be 100-plus degrees, and there’s no air conditioning.”
Surgent appeared to back up these claims, telling People that Todd and Julie are “living in squalor in 100-degree temperatures” in their respective facilities.
“Their living conditions, both of them, he in Pensacola, she in Lexington, Kentucky, it’s an absolute ridiculous situation,” he said.
Julie is incarcerated at the Federal Medical Center (FMC) Lexington in Kentucky, which is more than 650 miles — or about a 10-hour drive — from Todd’s prison.
As prosecutors believed she played a lesser role in the pair’s years-long tax and bank fraud scheme, Julie’s sentence is seven years.
“Not that we’re saying that they deserve special treatment because they’re celebrities. They don’t,” Surgent said of their conditions. “What we’re saying is that they, along with other inmates, deserve better treatment.”
He added: “We shouldn’t be treating our prisoners the way we’re treating our prisoners at this point in time.”
The Bureau of Prisons has disputed comments about the conditions at the facilities.
In a statement to Insider, a representative for the federal agency said: “For privacy, safety, and security reasons, we do not release information on the conditions of confinement for any inmate or group of inmates.”
However, they went on to state that all adults in custody “have unlimited access to drinking water and the Bureau of Prisons (BOP) is monitoring the ventilation at the Federal Prison Camp (FPC) Pensacola and the Federal Medical Center (FMC) Lexington, as one of our highest priorities is the safety of BOP employees” and adults in custody.
