Rapper TI is due to report to prison today after failing to get his long anticipated prison sentence further delayed. The hip hop man's legal people last week tried to get a further ten day delay in a bid to secure their man a cell in a prison nearer his home in Atlanta. But a US judge ruled on Friday that TI, real name Clifford Harris, must report to prison in Forrest City, Arkansas today, as originally planned.
As previously reported, TI was sentenced to a year in jail back in March after pleading guilty to two charges of illegally possessing firearms and of being a convicted felon in possession of a firearm, both relating to an incident in October 2007 when the rapper was found trying to buy unlicensed machine guns and silencers.
Those who think Harris has already got a rather good deal thanks to his expensive lawyers and celebrity status - the standard sentence for his crime is at least five years - will be pleased to here that is seems those reports from last week that the rapper's sentence had been further reduced to just two months are not true.
As previously reported, there were reports widely circulating on the net last week that because TI has already spent 305 days under 'home detention', some of it prior to his trial in March, those days would be credited against his prison sentence meaning he could be out of jail by July. However, it seems there has been some confusion between his prison time and a separate part of his sentence ordering home detention. It is true that, having been under 'home detention' for 305 days, TI only has to spend a further two months living under curfew, but that is separate from the prison sentence. The two remaining months of home detention will come once he is out of jail.
Prison time, though, remains unchanged at a year and a day, though he could get two months shaved off that for good behaviour once inside. As previously reported, TI got favourable treatment as part of a plea bargain which included some high profile community service warning young people off guns and crime, some of which was seen via an MTV series.
Confirming that the one year one day sentence still stood, TI told a celeb-filled audience at a special gig held in Atlanta this weekend to mark the start of his prison time: "I'm going to stand up tall, head up high. What I need y'all to do is pray for me while I'm gone. I'll see y'all in 366 days".