Jesse Jackson Jr. gets weekend off from house arrest to visit ailing grandmother

WASHINGTON – A federal judge is allowing former Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr. D-Ill., to take a short break from his home confinement this weekend to visit his ailing elderly grandmother in South Carolina.

Jackson was released from a Baltimore halfway house in June to complete his sentence at his DuPont Circle home here. He is under constant monitoring and wears a tracking device on his ankle.

When he came home in June he told reporters he wanted to see his grandmother, Helen, who lives in Greenville.

U.S. District Court Judge Amy Berman Jackson (no relation) issued an order on Thursday allowing the South Carolina travel between Friday and Monday. The judge in the order said she concurred “with the recommendation of the Probation Office to approve Mr. Jackson’s furlough request.”

That’s the same judge who handed down the sentences for Jackson and his wife, Sandi, the former 7th Ward Chicago alderman.

For her role in the couples’ looting of campaign funds, Sandi Jackson is expected to start her 12-month prison sentence on or about the end of October.

Jackson’s father, the Rev. Jesse Jackson, was born in Greenville.