Stars Who Went to Jail

Bill Cosby is in jail. Teen Mom OG‘s Ryan Edwards and Amber Portwood are out of jail. And Lori Loughlin and Felicity Huffman could be facing jail time.

In the United States, some 2.25 million people were incarcerated in state and federal prisons, and county and city jails at the end of 2017, the most recent data available from the U.S. Bureau of Justice Statistics show. Over the years and through today, this inmate population has included Oscar nominees, TV stars, country singers, music legends, media moguls, reality-TV favorites — and the future face of the Marvel Cinematic Universe movie franchise.

Stars, indeed, are just like us.

“Jailhouse stories really bring the house down,” Robert Downey Jr. (Avengers: Endgame) once quipped to Rolling Stone.

Like many of the stars who have done time behind bars, Downey was pulled off the path of success and into the criminal-justice system by substance abuse. Portwood (Teen Mom OG), Lindsay Lohan (Mean Girls, Lindsay Lohan‘s Beach Club), hotel heiress Paris Hilton, Michelle Rodriguez (The Fast and the Furious) and Keifer Sutherland (24) are among the bold-faced names who have also amassed drug- or alcohol-related rap sheets.

Some stars, meanwhile, have drawn jail or prison stints for harming others: Bill Cosby was convicted of sexual assault, Mark Wahlberg was convicted of assault and Phil Spector was convicted of murder.

Some stars have had their all-access star cards revoked by convictions on white-collar or financial crimes: Real Housewives of New Jersey‘s Teresa Giudice, Jersey Shore‘s Mike Sorrentino and lifestyle mogul Martha Stewart, included.

The college-admission scandal could be poised to add names — and inmates — to these ranks.

At an April 3 court hearing for 13 defendants, a federal judge told the accused, including Huffman, the Emmy-winning Desperate Housewives star and Oscar-nominated actress (Transamerica), Loughlin, the Full House favorite and now-former Hallmark Channel stalwart (When Calls the Heart), and Loughlin’s husband, designer Mossimo Giannulli, that they each faced a maximum prison sentence of 20 years, if convicted.

Huffman subsequently agreed to plead guilty to paying a fixer in the guise of a foundation $15,000 to upgrade her eldest daughter’s college-admission-exam score. It’s been reported Huffman could face up to 10 months in prison.

Here’s a look at 40 stars who have already faced the music: Been arrested, been charged, been convicted, been sentenced — and, when it comes to serving time behind bars, been there, done that.

Teresa Giudice

The Real Housewives of New Jersey star, seen here at a 2014 court appearance with husband Joe Giudice, served 11 months in prison after pleading guilty to fraud. The Italian-born Joe Giudice served a 41-month stint on fraud and other charges, and was subsequently detained by U.S. immigration officials who are seeking to deport him from the United States.

Abby Lee Miller

In 2017-2018, the Dance Moms star spent about eight months in a federal prison in California and additional time in a halfway house on fraud offenses.

Bill Cosby

The Cosby Show star, seen here in a 2018 mugshot, is currently Inmate No. NN7687 at a Pennsylvania state prison. The entertainer, accused of rape, assault and inappropriate conduct by dozens of women, is serving a three-to-10-year sentence for sexual assault.

Amber Portwood

The MTV reality star (16 and Pregnant, Teen Mom, Teen Mom OG) has racked up multiple arrests, but just one prison sentence: From 2012-2013, Portwood served 16 months behind bars for a drug-related probation violation.

Jared Fogle

The former Subway pitchman, seen here leaving a federal courthouse in Indiana in 2015, is serving a 15-year sentence in a Colorado federal prison on child-pornography charges.

Glen Campbell

The country-pop “Rhinestone Cowboy” singer’s 2003 arrest for what was termed extreme drunken driving led to this infamous mugshot, as well as a 10-day jail stint in Arizona. Campbell, who was subsequently diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease, died in 2017.

Dustin Diamond

In 2016, the former teen star, remembered as Saved by the Bell‘s Screech, served three months of a 120-day jail sentence for stabbing a man in a 2014 Wisconsin bar fight. About a month after his release, Diamond was jailed again on a probation violation.  

Mike Sorrentino

The situation for Jersey Shore‘s “The Situation” is this: The MTV reality star, seen here leaving court in 2014, is currently serving a eight-month federal prison sentence in New York for tax fraud.

Tim Zickuhr

Since 2014, this Season 2 star of Ice Road Truckers: Deadliest Roads has been serving a sentence of five to 15 years in a Nevada state prison for kidnapping and robbing a Las Vegas sex worker following a pay dispute.

Martha Stewart

From 2004-2005, the media mogul served five months in a federal prison in West Virginia and another five months in home confinement for an insider-trading stock case.  

Chris Brown

The R&B-pop singer (“Run It!”) has had several run-ins with the law, including a felony conviction for the 2009 assault of then-girlfriend Rihanna. But Brown largely avoided confinement until 2014 when he was sentenced to one year in jail for probation violations. With credit for time served, Brown spent a couple of months behind bars.

Lindsay Lohan

The once-upon-a-time Mean Girls star, seen here in a series of mugshots from 2007-2013, was sentenced to one day in jail in 2007 for driving under the influence and cocaine possession. Owing to facility overcrowding, she served 84 minutes.  

In 2010, Lohan served 13 days in jail for a probation violation.  

In 2011, Lohan racked up more jail sentences on probation violations. Each time, due to jail overcrowding, she was released after a matter of hours.

Paris HIlton

In 2007, at the height of her reality-TV fame, the Simple Life heiress was sentenced to 45 days in jail for a probation violation related to an alcohol-related reckless driving case. Hilton served a few days before being released to house arrest. Following public outcry, she was ordered back to jail, where she served another 18 days.

Michelle Rodriquez

In the 2000s, the Fast and Furious favorite was in repeated trouble for drunken driving. In 2007, she was ordered to wear a monitoring ankle bracelet, and in 2007-2008, she served 18 days in a Los Angeles County jail for a probation violation.

Robert Downey Jr.

Now the heart of the Marvel Cinematic Universe movies, Downey was in a dark place in the late 1990s when the actor spent nearly a year in a California state prison for substance abuses.  

O.J. Simpson

Acquitted of murder in the slayings of his ex-wife and a waiter, the football-standout-turned-movie-star served nine years in a Nevada state prison for armed robbery and kidnapping charges stemming from a sports-memorabilia dispute. Simpson was released in 2017.

Aaron Hernandez

In 2015, the New England Patriots football star was convicted in the 2013 shooting death of his fiancée’s sister’s boyfriend, and sentenced to life in prison. Hernandez hanged himself in his prison cell in 2017.

Tim Allen

Before he was a TV and Toy Story star, Allen, seen here at a 1998 movie event, served more than two years in a federal prison following a drug-trafficking bust in Michigan in 1978.  

Michael Skupin

A runner-up on Survivor: Philippines, the reality-TV star spent about a year in a state prison in Michigan for child-pornography possession. He was released in December 2017.  

James Brown

The “Godfather of Soul,” seen here in a mugshot for a 2004 domestic violence arrest, served 16 months in a South Carolina state prison for a 1988 incident in which the singer, reportedly upset that someone had used his private bathroom (per the Los Angeles Times), waved a gun at the occupants of a building he owned and then led police on a chase through South Carolina and Georgia. Brown died in 2006.

Mark Wahlberg

Now an Oscar-nominated movie star, the teenage Wahlberg served 45 days in jail in Massachusetts for the 1988 assault of a man. In 2004, the victim told London’s Guardian that Wahlberg did not blind him, as had long been reported, and that he had forgiven the actor.

Johnny Cash

The legendary “Man in Black,” seen here at charity event in Nashville in 1987, recorded an iconic album at California’s Folsom State Prison. He had several scrapes with the law, logging “a few nights in jail” over the course of seven arrests on various alleged misdemeanor crimes (per Biography.com). Cash died in 2003.

 

 

Kiefer Sutherland

In 2007, the actor struck a deal to do a jail stint for drunken driving and a probation violation during the winter break for his hit TV show, 24. Sutherland served 48 days behind bars from December 2017 to January 2018.

 

Michael Jace

In 2016, the TV star (The Shield, Southland) was convicted of second-degree murder in the 2014 shooting death of his wife. Jace is currently an inmate in a California state prison, serving a sentence of 40 years to life.

 

Phil Spector

The Rock & Roll Hall of Fame producer (“Be My Baby,” “Chapel of Love”) is currently in a California state prison serving a sentence of 19 years to life for the 2003 shooting death of actress/nightclub hostess Lana Clarkson. Spector was convicted of second-degree murder in the case in 2009.

Richard Hatch

The champion of the first-ever season of Survivor, Hatch spent roughly three years in a federal prison, from 2006-2009, for failing to pay federal taxes on his $1 million reality-show winnings.

Christian Slater

The Mr. Robot star is seen here in 1998 washing a patrol car during a 59-day jail stint in La Verne, California, for battery and drug offenses.  

50 Cent

As a teenager in 1994, the Grammy-winning hip-hop star, born Curtis Jackson, served roughly seven months in a “youth ‘shock incarceration’ boot camp,” as The Smoking Gun put it, for a pair of drug-dealing arrests in New York.

 

Lil’ Kim

The Notorious K.I.M. rapper, born Kimberly Jones, was released from a federal prison in Philadelphia in 2006 after serving one year and a day for a perjury case related to a 2001 gun battle outside a New York City radio station.

Ricardo Medina Jr.

The Power Rangers franchise star (Power Rangers Wild Force, Power Rangers Samurai) is currently serving a six-year sentence in a California state prison for killing his roommate with a sword in 2015. Medina pleaded guilty to voluntary manslaughter in 2017.

Sean Penn

In 1987, the actor with a history of lashing out served 33 days in a Los Angeles County jail for punching an extra on the set of Colors and for reckless driving.  

 

Merle Haggard

The outlaw-country legend, seen here at a 1980 concert, pulled a nearly three-year stint in California’s San Quentin State Prison for the 1957 attempted robbery of a restaurant. Haggard died in 2016.

 

 

Tupac Shakur

In 1995, the rapper-actor was bailed out after a New York state prison by Death Row Records co-founder Marion “Suge” Knight after Shakur had served nine months for the sexual abuse of a woman. Shakur was shot to death while riding in Knight’s car in 1996.

 

Joe Son

In 2011, the actor, who played Dr. Evil henchman Random Task in Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery, was found guilty of felony torture in a 1990 gang-rape case, and sentenced to life in a California state prison.

One month after the sentencing, Son was accused in the beating death of his new cellmate. Son was convicted of voluntary manslaughter in that case in 2017, and handed a 27-year sentence. He remains incarcerated.

Lauryn Hill

In 2013, the Grammy-winning singer served three months in a federal prison in Connecticut for tax evasion.  

 

Mike Tyson

The heavyweight boxing star is seen here in a Maryland courtroom in 1999 when he served more than three months in jail for the road-rage assault of two motorists. Previously, Tyson was locked up in an Indiana state prison from 1992-1995 on a rape conviction.  

 

Danny Trejo

The Machete star, seen here at the 2010 Venice Film Festival, spent much of his youth in the 1960s in California state prisons for “various armed robberies and drug offenses,” as the San Quentin Times reported.  

 

 

Charles S. Dutton

The Emmy-winner and Tony-nominee is seen here in 2008 performing his one-man show, From Jail to Yale: Serving Time on Stage, which chronicled, in part, his 1969-1976 stint in a Maryland prison for manslaughter.

 

Shelley Malil

In 2018, the 40-Year-Old Virgin actor was released from a California state prison after serving nearly eight years for the attempted stabbing murder of his then-girlfriend.  

 

 

Gary Glitter

In 2015, the glam rocker behind the once-ubiquitous sports-stadium anthem, “Rock and Roll Part 2,” was sentenced to 16 years in prison in his native England for a variety of offenses, including attempted rape and sex with a minor. He remains incarcerated.

From 2006-2008, Glitter, born Paul Gadd, served two years behind bars in Vietnam for child molestation.

In 1999, Glitter did a four-month jail stint in England for possession of child pornography.