R. Kelly Released From Solitary Confinement

'Mr. Kelly has been released from special housing. No impropriety whatsoever was found with respect to his possession of the telephone number of a former prison official,' Kelly's attorney, Beau Brindley said.

R. Kelly is reportedly back in gen pop (general population), following a brief stint in solitary confinement. The disgraced entertainer was released on March 14.

“Mr. Kelly has been released from special housing. No impropriety whatsoever was found with respect to his possession of the telephone number of a former prison official,” Kelly’s attorney, Beau Brindley, told the media outlet. “He was kept in special housing for approximately two weeks without legitimate cause before the facility was compelled to release him.”

According to Los Angeles Magazine, the “I Believe I Can Fly” producer spent about two weeks at the Federal Correctional Institution in Butner, North Carolina, as prison officials investigated how and why he had the retired warden’s phone number. The disgraced singer had the retired prison leader’s digits in his personal possession, and upon officials discovering the information, Kelly was thrown into solitary confinement. Nothing improper was determined to have taken place after obtaining the warden’s number; prison officials released him from solitary confinement, leading his attorney to accuse officials of unfairly holding the crooner without cause.

Brindley explained that the singer had obtained the phone number while participating in a prison mentorship program. He stayed in contact with the warden after he retired. He received the number when the warden stated that he could reach out to him directly if he needed guidance in the program.

“His only reason for having the phone number or contact with that prison official is because he was involved in a mentor program at the jail,” Brindley told People when he was initially placed in solitary confinement. “And so he’s involved in a mentor program, and because of that, he has a relationship with the prison official. That official retired and left the phone number for Mr. Kelly, and then, as a result of that, now Mr. Kelly’s locked up in special housing, for what they call an investigation.”

Kelly is currently serving a 30-year federal sentence after being convicted of several charges, including racketeering, sex trafficking, and child pornography, in cases in New York and Chicago between 2021 and 2022.