By Julia Jacobs and Robert Chiarito

It was an extraordinary ending to an unusual hearing.

, sentenced to five months in a Chicago jail, stood up, defiantly declared his innocence and repeatedly warned the room that he was not suicidal and, if anything should befall him while incarcerated, it would not be his own doing.

Then, with his right fist raised, Smollett was led off to become likely the most famous of the 6,000 inmates at the Cook County Jail.

The jail primarily houses defendants awaiting trial but also convicts serving shorter sentences, like Smollett, 39, who was booked into Division 8, a facility that is used to administer medical and mental health treatment, as well as house inmates who require protective custody.

Smollett has a private cell, which is monitored by security cameras and an officer stationed at the entrance, according to the Cook County Sheriff’s Office. He will be allowed “substantial time” outside his cell to talk on the phone, watch television and interact with staff members in common areas, but only when other detainees are not present, the office said.

Judge James B. Linn, who presided over the trial at which the actor was convicted of falsely reporting a hate crime, had ordered that Smollett serve his jail term under protective custody.

Smollett’s lawyer Nenye Uche had said after Thursday’s (10) hearing that his client was vulnerable and deserved special protective measures. “All you need to do is log onto various media, social media, to see some of the nasty things said about him,” Uche said. “Of course someone like that should be in protective custody.”

Supporters have said the actor is particularly vulnerable to being targeted because he is a gay man and a recognizable celebrity.

In arguing for leniency at the hearing, Smollett’s lawyers had emphasized evidence of his good character and said they supported his contention of innocence, urging he be given a new trial or, at the least, probation. They did not mention in their arguments a concern about the specific realities of incarceration at the Chicago jail, which some social justice advocates have described as having a “culture of brutality and violence” in the highest security units.

Smollett’s unit is not among those cited.

Criminal defence experts said they thought the jail would likely do everything it could to isolate Smollett from other prisoners, considering his fame and potential to disrupt day-to-day activities there, which for many inmates include communal meals in the commissary.

“They’re going to put him wherever they would have the least amount of disruptions to the rest of the facility,” said Steve Greenberg, a defence attorney in Chicago who represents singer R. Kelly against sex crime charges in Illinois. Kelly was once held in the division where Smollett resides.

Smollett’s lawyers had asked the judge to defer Smollett’s sentence until after they have appealed his conviction. But Linn swiftly denied their request. In addition to the jail time, Smollett was sentenced to more than two years of probation, plus a fine of $25,000 and restitution of more than $120,000 to offset the city’s cost in investigating the case.

The maximum sentence allowed for the offence for which Smollett was charged, felony disorderly conduct, is three years in prison, but many of those convicted are given probation. Linn cited several factors, including Smollett’s testimony on the witness stand, which the judge described as “pure perjury”, in explaining why he ordered some jail time.

Sam Mendenhall, a prosecutor on the case, said Friday (11) that he believed Smollett would not have the option of reducing his jail time for good behaviour because Linn ordered it as a condition of probation.Set featured image

The Cook County Sheriff’s Office said in a statement Thursday that Smollett would receive a “comprehensive medical, mental health and security assessment.” Smollett’s sentencing hearing at Leighton Criminal Court Building was unusual in its length — about five hours — and its intensity, with the defence, the prosecution and even the judge making impassioned speeches about the case.

Smollett’s supporters, including his 92-year-old grandmother and his former boss at a nonprofit organization, made glowing remarks about his commitment to social justice as they pleaded for leniency.

In his own extensive remarks, Linn took another tack, sharply condemning Smollett as a narcissistic attention-seeker who wasted precious police hours with his “stunt” and made it more difficult for real hate crime victims to be taken seriously.

“Your very name has become an adverb for lying,” Linn said. “And I cannot imagine what could be worse than that.”

Uche later said he was “offended” by the remarks, and outside the courtroom, one of Smollett’s brothers, Jocqui Smollett, sharply criticized the judge.

“He chastised my brother,” Jocqui Smollett said. “He does not deserve this. He was attacked.”

Police believed initially that Jussie Smollett, best known for starring in the music industry drama ‘Empire’, had been the victim of a hate crime when he reported Jan. 29, 2019, that he had been attacked by two men who hurled racist and homophobic slurs at him, put a rope around his neck like a noose and shouted “this is MAGA country”.  But prosecutors presented evidence that Smollett had orchestrated the hoax himself, including testimony from two brothers, Abimbola Osundairo and Olabinjo Osundairo, who said they had mildly assaulted Smollett according to his directions.

The defence had argued that the brothers carried out the attack to scare Smollett into hiring them as his security detail. Smollett’s appeal is likely to follow the arguments raised by his lawyers Thursday, in which they cited what they described as errors by the judge and the prosecutors, and suggested Smollett’s case had already been adjudicated once and he could not be punished twice — a violation of the legal concept of double jeopardy.

In 2019, when prosecutors dropped the original charges, Smollett did some community service and surrendered his $10,000 bond payment, punishment that seemed insufficient to some critics.

Kim Foxx, the state’s attorney whose office negotiated that initial outcome, sharply criticized the prosecutors who handled the second indictment in an op-ed for the Chicago Sun-Times on Thursday, calling it a “kangaroo prosecution” and “mob justice.” (After an investigation of Foxx’s office, Dan Webb, the special prosecutor who handled the case, found the office had abused its discretion, but did not violate the law, in deciding to drop the charges.)

Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot struck a different tone, saying in a statement that the city had been “vindicated” by the judge’s sentence.

-New York Times