Jesse Jackson Jr. eligible for halfway house in September

Imprisoned ex-congressman Jesse Jackson Jr. is eligible for a halfway house in September, U.S. prison officials say, but that doesn’t mean he’ll automatically be released from his federal prison camp then.

All federal prisoners are eligible for a halfway house when they have just one year left on their prison terms.

Come September, that will be the case with Jackson, who is serving a 30-month sentence for looting his campaign fund of $750,000.

Bureau of Prisons spokesman Chris Burke said most inmates are released to halfway houses when they have six months or less left in their terms but it all depends on their “pre-release needs,” he said. “The evaluation for their pre-release needs are ongoing.”

Jackson was recently moved from a North Carolina prison camp to a minimum-security prison camp at Maxwell Air Force Base in Alabama, which had been his first choice.

Jackson, through another inmate, had talked about doing penance — after dishonoring the public and his family — by scrubbing toilets with a toothbrush as one of his inmate jobs.

“We do have inmates cleaning toilets,” Burke said. “Typically, they’re given regular cleaning instruments.”