Politics

After 24 Years In Congress, Corrine Brown Starts New Life In Prison

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Thomas Phippen Acting Editor-In-Chief
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Former Florida Democratic Rep. Corrine Brown reported to federal prison Monday to start her five year sentence for multiple crimes, including tax fraud and corruption.

Brown, 71, turned herself in to the Sumter Correctional Institution in Florida, one of the largest federal prisons in the country, which houses both violent and non-violent offenders. Brown will be serving her five-year sentence at a minimum-security satellite facility, which keeps roughly 391 other female inmates.

WATCH: Corrine Brown reports to prison

Brown was ordered to report before noon Monday, and a black a black bus with tinted windows arrived at the prison yard and Brown stepped out, the Florida Times-Union reports.

She was in the bus with some family members, and asked Bishop Kelvin Cobaris, a pastor from the Orlando area, to pray for her. When a reporter asked if Brown was afraid, Cobaris said, “The congresswoman is a very strong woman. I didn’t see fear. I saw nervousness.”

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Brown was sentenced in December to five years in prison, plus three years supervised release. She could potentially apply for early release after 12 months.

She was found guilty of 18 out of 22 counts of corruption and tax-related fraud in May 2016. Brown and associates transferred more than $800,000 from One Door for Education, a charity she ran, into personal bank accounts between 2012 and 2016. Ronnie Simmons, Brown’s former chief of staff, and the charity’s president, Carla Wiley, both testified against their former boss.

Brown represented Florida’s Fifth Congressional district for 24 years before she was defeated in the 2016 election.

The prison will likely give Brown clerical or janitorial work at the prison, said Larry Levine, whose Wall Street Prison Consultants business helps recently incarcerated inmates adjust to life behind bars. “I was locked up with politicians — they have entitlement issues, they think they’re entitled to things and people resent that,” Levine told the Orlando Sentinel. “They’re going to think she’s rich — she can claim she doesn’t have any money.”

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