Real Housewives of New Jersey News: Joe Giudice Begins Prison Term But Hopes For Early Release

By R. Siva Kumar - 24 Mar '16 08:52AM

Joe Giudice has been given 41 months in prison, and he began it at 12 p.m. Wednesday. Still, the "Real Housewives of New Jersey" star talks of his sentence getting reduced if he is on "good behavior."

In 2014, the actor was sentenced along with wife, "RHONJ" star Teresa Giudice, pleading that they were guilty of 39 "fraud-related crimes."

They were both given consecutive terms so that either one of the parents could stay at home and care for their four daughters, even as the other was in prison. First, Teresa got 15 months at the Federal Correctional Institution in Danbury, Conn., and later got it reduced to 11 months after being released a day before Christmas Eve last year. And now, three months after her release, she had to see the last of the husband for another 14 months.

"I shouldn't be in there longer than a year and a half," Joe told People. "You get a good time, and now they have, with my kind of crime, [a system where] you are eligible for [sentence reduction] programs in there so I will do as many programs as I can."

He is thus planning to join an alcohol rehabilitation program as well as others that can bring down his time to about 18 months. Earlier, he had said that the Federal Correction Institute in Fort Dix, N.J. is a low-security, military camp-type of a facility. Most of the men there are merely working on various programs to bring down their sentences.

"A lot of programs knock 10 days off a month. So, whatever programs are available," he said. "I don't care if I have to take up to 24 hours, seven days a week, I will knock off as many things to pass time and get it over with and get out. That's what your goal is - to basically work on getting out."

The family attorney James Leonard Jr. made public a sentence after Giudice surrendered to the Federal Correctional Institute and started his sentence.

"His brother, his sister and several other members of the Giudice family, as well as myself, were present when he turned himself into the prison, including Teresa," Leonard's statement read. "It was obviously a very emotional day, but this is a very strong family with a tremendous support system and they will get through this, just as they did when Teresa was away."