According to federal officials, singer R. Kelly was transferred this week from a Chicago jail facility to a medium-security prison in North Carolina.
According to Benjamin O’Cone, a spokesman for the Federal Bureau of Prisons, Robert Sylvester Kelly was sent from the Metropolitan Correctional Center in Chicago to the federal prison in Butner, North Carolina, on April 19.
Due to privacy, security, and safety concerns, the agency doesn’t publicly state the reasons for inmate transfers, the author said.
In February, a federal judge in Chicago sentenced the 56-year-old Grammy Award-winning R&B singer to 20 years in prison for child pornography and enticement of minors for sex. He will serve all but one of those simultaneously with a separate 30-year sentence on racketeering and sex trafficking convictions in New York.
Kelly, who has vehemently denied the allegations, rose from poverty in Chicago to become one of the world’s biggest R&B stars. Known for his smash hit “I Believe I Can Fly” and for sex-infused songs such as “Bump n’ Grind,” he sold millions of albums even after allegations about his abuse of girls began circulating publicly in the 1990s.