Grammy Award- winning singer Lauren Hill began a three month prison sentence on Monday for failing to pay $1 million in taxes for over a decade.
Hill reported to a prison in Danbury. Inmates in the minimum security prison live openly in a dormitory style where they are expected to work jobs in maintenance, landscaping, or food service.
Hill, who began singing with the Fugees when she was a teenager in the 1990s, pleaded guilty last year to failing to pay taxes on more than $1.8 million earned from 2005 to 2007. Her federal prison sentence also took into account her failure to pay state and federal taxes in 2008 and 2009.
Hill’s attorney argued for probation, referencing her charitable work, her family circumstances, and they fact that she paid back the taxes she owed. Hill said her failure to pay taxes stemmed from a period where she dropped out of the music business to protect her six children.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Sandra Moser acknowledged Hill’s creative talent and charity work, but called her reasoning “a parade of excuses centering around her feeling put upon” that does not exempt her from her responsibilities.
After she is released from prison, Hill will be on parole for one year, the first three months of which will be home confinement.
