Wife of ex-US Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr. reports to prison

In this Nov. 9, 2006 file photo, Sandi Jackson, smiles at her husband, then-U.S. Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr., during a news conference in Chicago. The U.S. Bureau of Prisons says 52-year-old Sandi Jackson reported to the Federal Prison Camp at Alderson in West Virginia Tuesday, Oct. 20,2015. She is serving a one-year sentence on a conviction related to $750,000 in spending of her husband’s campaign money on everything from fur capes to vacations. The former Chicago city councilwoman, a Democrat, reported one month after her husband completed his 2 ½ year sentence. AP Photo

CHICAGO, United States—The wife of former U.S. Congressman Jesse Jackson Jr. reported to prison Tuesday, the second half of the once-powerful political couple to serve time for convictions tied to $750,000 in lavish illegal spending of campaign money on items from furs to vacations.

Sandi Jackson, herself a former Chicago city councilwoman, presented herself at the Federal Prison Camp at Alderson in West Virginia to begin serving a one-year sentence for filing false income tax returns, the U.S. Bureau of Prisons said in an emailed statement.

She starts her prison term one month after her husband completed his 2½ year sentence on a fraud conviction for the illegally spending. The judge who sentenced both of them in 2013 after they reached plea deals with prosecutors allowed the Jacksons to stagger their sentences in a concession to their two school-aged children.

Sandi Jackson, 52 and, like her husband, a Democrat, will serve her time about 250 miles (400 kilometers) west of Washington, D.C., where the Jacksons have made their home in recent years.

Jesse Jackson Jr., 50 and the son of civil rights leader Rev. Jesse Jackson, served in Congress from 1995 until he resigned in November 2012, ending a once-promising political career. He left Congress that June, and his staff eventually confirmed that he took a medical leave for treatment of bipolar disorder and other issues.