JOSH Duggar has been released from an Arkansas jail to continue to serve his 12-year child pornography sentence in federal prison.
Josh, 34, was sentenced to 12 years behind bars for receiving child pornography on May 25 after he was found guilty of the crime back in December.
Since the sentencing, Josh has been in Washington County Jail in Arkansas awaiting transfer to either FCI Seagoville or FCI Texarkana in Texas depending on availability.
The Washington County Jail exclusively confirmed to The Sun Josh is no longer in their custody.
They were unable to confirm where he is being transferred for safety reasons.
His status on the Federal Bureau of Prisons has not been updated to reflect his current location.
REUNITED
The release comes after Josh’s wife Anna, 34, revealed she is going on a “road trip” to see her “bestie.”
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Anna posted on her Instagram: “Officially 34. 14 years since I said, ‘Yes.’ Road-tripping to visit my bestie.
"'Even if' by Mercy Me on repeat. ‘Jesus will cling to you. Come what may.’"
LONG WAIT
Josh has been behind bars in the Arkansas jail since May because of overcrowding, The Sun previously reported.
A legal source explained: “It’s a waiting game and that's normal! The jail has no control over when the federal government transports him out of Washington County.
“Jails are crowded, it takes time to ‘decide’ on a facility, find an open bed, arrange transfer and more. The system moves slow. It's impossible to know a timeline.”
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The insider continued to The Sun: “Prisons and jails are jam-packed. The two facilities they are asking for are small, like 1,700 people small."
COVID FEARS
The Sun previously reported Seagoville facility, where his legal team recommended he go, made headlines in 2020 for having over 72% of its population infected with COVID.
CNN reported in August of 2020 that at least three inmates had died at that point, with one of the inmate's family members calling the facility a "petri dish."
DANGEROUS CONDITIONS
Beyond widespread disease, there have been a number of assaults inside the prison walls over the years.
According to a release by the Department of Justice "John Hall, 27, an Aryan Brotherhood member and inmate" at the facility, attacked and assaulted a fellow inmate because he believed he was gay.
"Hall repeatedly punched, kicked and stomped on the victim’s face with his shod feet, a dangerous weapon, while yelling a homophobic slur.
"The victim lost consciousness during the assault and suffered multiple lacerations to his face. The victim also sustained a fractured eye socket, lost a tooth, and fractured other teeth," the release read.
In another instance, according to CBS, a correction officer was arrested for abusive sexual contact with an inmate at FCI Seagoville, the officer resigned and was sentenced to one year behind bars.
In another instance, the Bureau of Prisons and the Seagoville warden at the time were sued by an inmate over the conditions within the facility in a civil rights action.
In a complaint reviewed by The Sun, the inmate alleged that overcrowding exacerbated a number of conditions inmates faced inside the prison.
The inmate, Jed Lineberry, said the overcrowding added to an "increased exposure to a violent environment," among a slew of other allegations in the federal filing.
His claims were ultimately dismissed since he had already been transferred to the Texarkana facility.
According to the BOP website, FCI Seagoville has a Sex Offender Management Program (SOMP) and in 2018 it was estimated that around 40% of the inmates there were sex offenders.
JOSH'S SENTENCING
Honorable Judge Timothy L Brooks sentenced Josh to 151 months in prison on May 25.
According to The Sun's court reporter, Josh appeared stoic as he received his sentence, which also includes $50,100 in fines.
As he read his decision, the judge called Josh's crimes "the sickest of the sick" to the packed courtroom.
He then said to Josh: "You have done some very bad things. But in your life as a whole, you've done good things… The true test of a man's character is what a man does when no one is watching."
Referring to Josh's insistence that he's innocent, the judge continued: "I find it aggravating about the lack of responsibility."
Judge Brooks recommended Josh participate in the Bureau of Prison's sex offender treatment program.
In the molestation police report, Jim Bob told authorities his son was sent to a Christian counseling program where he did “manual labor and had counseling.”
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When prosecutors fought for a 20-year sentence on the child pornography charges, they feared Josh would not get the proper counseling and would re-offend again.
The father of seven filed to appeal the sentence.
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