Singer Lauryn Hill has begun her three-month prison sentence for failing to pay about one million dollars in taxes over the past decade.
Hill reported to federal prison in Danbury, Connecticut. Inmates at the minimum security prison live in open dormitory-style living quarters and are expected to work jobs such as maintenance, food service or landscaping.
Hill, who started singing with the Fugees as a teenager in the 1990s before releasing her multiplatinum 1998 album “The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill,” pleaded guilty last year in New Jersey to failing to pay taxes on earnings from 2005 to 2007.
Her lawyer had sought probation, arguing that Hill’s charity work, her family circumstances and the fact she paid back the taxes she owed should merit consideration.
During her sentencing in May, Hill described how she failed to pay taxes during a period when she had dropped out of the music business to protect herself and her children, who now number six. She said the treatment she received while she was in the entertainment business led to her decision to leave it.
Assistant US Attorney Sandra Moser acknowledged Hill’s creative talent and work on behalf of impoverished children but called her explanation for her actions “a parade of excuses centring around her feeling put upon” that do not exempt her from her responsibilities.
After she is released from prison, she will be under parole supervision for a year, the first three months of which will be spent under home confinement.