R. Kelly has been removed from solitary confinement following a prison review of his behavior.
The disgraced R&B singer-songwriter was placed into confinement for two weeks at his North Carolina facility last month following a search of his cell, where a notebook was found with a retired warden’s phone number. Although Kelly’s attorney claimed the official was a “mentor” of the three-time Grammy winner, he was taken into isolation and an internal review about him procuring the number was launched.
Kelly’s lawyer, Beau Brindley, told Los Angeles Magazine that “no impropriety whatsoever was found with respect to his possession of the telephone number of a former prison official.”
“He was kept in special housing for approximately two weeks without legitimate cause before the facility was compelled to release him,” Brindley said of Kelly being temporarily placed in the Special Housing Unit (SHU) at the Federal Correctional Complex. A photo has since surfaced of 59-year-old Kelly posing with another inmate.
The controversial R&B singer is serving a 30-year sentence after being convicted of racketeering and sex crimes in New York and Illinois in 2021 and 2023, respectively. Despite previous claims, Kelly did not attempt to escape from prison, although he accused a solitary confinement employee of trying to kill him. In January, Kelly was taken to a hospital after refusing to undergo a procedure to alleviate his blood clots at the facility. The artist and his lawyers claimed that a staffer attempted to administer a potentially lethal amount of medication.
Also in February, Reshona Landfair, the then-child victim in the infamous 2000s Kelly videotape, published her memoir about being groomed by the singer, titled Who’s Watching Shorty?