T.I.’s Lawyer Confirms Early Release Rumors

Rapper T.I. may be getting a pretty huge Christmas gift this year: he will be released from prison early. If all goes according to plan, the Atlanta native could be released from federal prison to a halfway house within a month. Tip's projected release date is March 2010 shaving almost two months off his original one-year and a day sentence for good behavior and a 14-day credit for time served prior to being sentenced. His lawyer, Steve Sadow, is optimistic that he may be home even sooner.

"Now it is up to the [Federal] Bureau of Prisons to decide whether someone should be placed in a halfway house prior to the projected release date," Sadow explained. "The Bureau of Prisons can do that and typically does it either a month before, or two months before... as much as six months before the projected release date.

"We are hopeful that T.I. will be placed in a halfway house within the next month or so, which would be about two or three months before his projected release date. We are hopeful for that, we do not have any control over it. The Bureau of Prisons makes that decision entirely on its own, they don't share that decision with the public and they don't share that decision with the defense lawyers," Sadow continued. "But we are hopeful because we know that T.I. has handled himself accordingly and conducted himself correctly while he has been incarcerated, we are hopeful that the Bureau of Prisons will give him two or three months of halfway house."

Tip, born Clifford Harris Jr., was arrested on federal gun charges in 2007. He began serving his 366-day sentence at the Forrest City Federal Correctional Complex in May.