R. Kelly has been taken out of solitary confinement after prison officials completed a review of his conduct.
The disgraced R&B singer was placed in isolation for two weeks at a North Carolina facility last month after officers searched his cell and discovered a notebook containing the phone number of a retired warden. While Kelly’s attorney insisted the former official was simply a “mentor” to the three-time Grammy winner, the discovery led to him being placed in solitary while authorities investigated how he obtained the contact.
Kelly’s lawyer, Beau Brindley, later told Los Angeles Magazine that “no impropriety whatsoever was found with respect to his possession of the telephone number of a former prison official.”
“He was kept in special housing for approximately two weeks without legitimate cause before the facility was compelled to release him,” Brindley said about Kelly’s temporary placement in the Special Housing Unit (SHU) at the Federal Correctional Complex. A photo has also surfaced showing the 59-year-old Kelly posing alongside another inmate.
The controversial R&B singer is currently serving a 30-year prison sentence after being convicted of racketeering and sex crimes in New York and Illinois in 2021 and 2023. Despite earlier speculation, Kelly did not attempt to escape from prison, though he did accuse a staff member working in solitary confinement of trying to kill him. In January, Kelly was hospitalized after refusing a procedure meant to treat blood clots at the facility. The singer and his legal team alleged that a staff member attempted to administer what they believed was a potentially lethal dose of medication.
Back in February, Reshona Landfair—who was the underage victim featured in the widely circulated 2000s Kelly videotape—released a memoir about her experience being groomed by the singer, titled Who’s Watching Shorty?
