Actor Jussie Smollett, who was found guilty of staging a "racist and homophobic" attack on himself, has been placed in a psych ward at Cook County Jail, according to his brother Jocqui.
The latter took to Instagram to share the latest news about the condition of Jussie.
"What's very concerning is that there was a note attached to his paperwork today and put in front of his jail cell saying that he's at risk of self-harm", Jocqui revealed. "I want to make it clear to folks that he is in no way, shape, or form at risk of self-harm. He wants to let folks know that he is very stable, he is very strong, he is very healthy and ready to take on the challenge that ultimately has been put up against him".
Smollett, once a TV star known in particular for his performance in "Empire", was sentenced to 150 days behind bars after being found guilty of filing a false police report - a class 4 felony that has a maximum sentence of four years. The court found that he had faked a hate crime against himself in order to improve his publicity.
After the judge announced the verdict, Smollett suddenly delivered a bizarre and emotional speech, yelling that he was innocent and "not suicidal".
"If anything happens to me in there I did not do it", he asserted, apparently concerned that he could potentially find himself in a situation similar to Jeffrey Epstein's - a late American financier and sex offender whose death in 2019 was ruled to be a suicide. The official version is still disputed by some.
The judge called him "a charlatan pretending to be a victim of a hate crime". Back in 2019, when Smollett made his claims, he was publicly defended by many media and political figures, among them even Joe Biden and Donald Trump.
Despite the "hate crime" case having taken an unexpected turn, Smollett continues to insist that he is innocent. The actor reportedly even told his attorneys that he would receive a harsher sentence because he is black. However, the judge ruled that if he behaves behind bars, he could leave jail after just 75 days instead of serving his full sentence.