R. Kelly Has Been Placed in Isolation Under ‘Inhumane’ Conditions Behind Bars, Attorney Claims

R. Kelly is being investigated for an alleged infraction at the federal facility he’s serving his sentence at in Butner, North Carolina, and has been moved to isolation while the inquiry is underway.

“He’s in isolation. Now that’s a fact,” Kelly’s attorney, Beau Brindley, told People in an article published on Tuesday, February 17. “He’s being held there simply because of his possession of a phone number for a retired prison official. That’s also a fact.”

Brindley stated that the “only reason for having the phone number or contact with that prison official is because he was involved in a mentor program at the jail.”

“And so he’s involved in a mentor program, and because of that, he has a relationship with the prison official,” the attorney continued. “That official retired and left the phone number for Mr. Kelly, and then, as a result of that, now Mr. Kelly’s locked up in special housing, for what they call an investigation.”

Brindley confirmed that while the official “held” the role of warden at one point, the person has since retired.

“You have multiple positions at the jail at different times, so I don’t want to commit to which one at what time,” he explained to the publication. “There are warden positions, associate warden positions, other positions. But yes, in reality, it’s a prison official that had been a warden at one time for sure.”

However, Brindley described Kelly’s time in isolation as “devastating” saying that the conditions in which Kelly, 59, was being held were “inhumane.”

“It’s freezing cold down there,” Brindley said. “I’ve been able to talk to him, and I know he’s suffering right now, and it’s devastating for him, but he’s, you know, doing the best he can.”

Brindley didn’t know how long Kelly’s time in isolation would last and said that the prison “will not give us that timeframe” but that he and the rest of Kelly’s legal team were “trying as hard as we can to make it as short as possible.”

Kelly is serving a 30-year sentence after being convicted on federal charges that included racketeering and sex trafficking in 2021 and 2022.