Over the last few years, we've seen a lot of familiar faces do time behind bars. From Lori Loughlin and Felicity Huffman being sentenced after their involvement in the 2019 college admissions scandal to Teresa and Joe Giudice's fraud charges, we've seen proof that not even celebrities can escape the law — and sometimes, that means giving up their freedom to pay their debt to society.
Going to prison is never a fun thing, of course, and we can't imagine it was much of a picnic for people who are used to having the best of everything. But some of them have come out on the other side as a better person, having learned their lesson the hard way for sure.
Read on to find out which celebrities have spent time in jail or prison. They did the crime, so they did the time — even though, in many cases, they did a lot less time than they would have if they weren't famous.
Lindsay Lohan
After multiple DUI arrests in the early 2000s, Lindsay Lohan was sentenced to one day in jail (along with community service and three years of probation) for her crimes. But she didn't even end up spending that long behind bars. According to Reuters, Lindsay was only in jail for 84 minutes before she was released, likely because of overcrowding.
Paris Hilton
Paris Hilton also spent time in jail on DUI charges. As NPR reported at the time, Paris was sentenced to 45 days in 2007 for violating her probation involving charges related to a reckless driving case. But after serving just three days, she was sent home to complete the rest of her sentence confined to her home.
Lori Loughlin
It was pretty clear as soon as news broke that the former Full House star was involved in the college admissions scandal that prison time would be in her future. Lori Loughlin and husband Mossimo Giannulli both ended up doing time — a total of two months for Lori — along with community service and fines as part of their sentences.
Felicity Huffman
Lori wasn't the only celebrity involved in the college admissions scandal. Former Desperate Housewives star Felicity Huffman pled guilty to fraud and conspiracy after she paid a proctor to fix her daughter's SAT answers, which landed her a two-week prison sentence. She was released two days early and went home in October 2019.
Robert Downey Jr.
Before he was Tony Stark, Robert Downey Jr. had a pretty difficult past as he battled addiction. In 1999, he was sentenced to three years in prison after failing to take a mandatory drug test connected to his earlier arrest in 1996, when police found cocaine, heroin, and a gun in his car when he got pulled over for speeding.
Abby Lee Miller
Back in Abby Lee Miller's Dance Moms days, she filed for bankruptcy — and that caused the IRS to look into her financial situation so deeply that they discovered in the process that she was actually hiding more than $700,000 of her money. She ended up taking a plea deal that ended in a one-year sentence, of which Abby served eight months.
Wesley Snipes
In 2008, Wesley Snipes was sentenced to three years in prison for tax evasion, which also came with a $5 million fine. Though he appealed, the sentence stuck, and in December 2010, he began serving his time. He was released early in April 2013.
Martha Stewart
Since she's one of the most famous celebrity inmates ever, there's a good chance you're familiar with this story. After Martha Stewart's arrest on insider trading charges in 2002, she was sentenced to five months in prison. She was released on March 4, 2005, though she still had another five months of home confinement ahead of her.
Khloé Kardashian
It's hard to think about Khloé Kardashian's time in jail without also thinking about big sis Kim taking selfies in the car on the way to drop her off. But even though mom Kris Jenner was worried, Khloé didn't end up spending too much time behind bars for her DUI-related probation violation. As People reported at the time, in 2008, she was released after three hours, due to overcrowding, after she checked herself in for her 30-day sentence.
Paul McCartney
This former Beatle has done time — it just wasn't in the US. In 1980, Paul McCartney was arrested in the Tokyo airport when marijuana was found in his suitcase. He ended up serving nine days, but as he told James Corden (via NME) years later, his sentence might have been as long as seven years if he wasn't a celebrity.
Mike Sorrentino
It wasn't all that long ago that Mike "The Situation" Sorrentino was in jail. In September 2019, the Jersey Shore alum was released from prison after serving eight months for tax evasion. He and his brother Marc both pleaded guilty to their charges, and Mike paid more than $100,000 in restitution.
Tim Allen
Before he starred in Home Improvement (and definitely before he was the voice of Buzz Lightyear in Toy Story), Tim Allen served some serious time. He spent more than two years in prison for cocaine possession and drug trafficking charges, though it would certainly seem that he's turned his life around since then.
Mark Wahlberg
In 1988 — when he was 16 years old — Mark Wahlberg served 45 days in prison after he was convicted of beating up two Vietnamese men and using racial slurs against them. As Time reported, he requested a pardon in 2014, writing that he was "not the same person I was on the night of April 8, 1998."
OJ Simpson
Though OJ Simpson was acquitted of the 1994 murder of his ex-wife, Nicole Brown Simpson, years later, a different incident landed him in prison. As Sports Illustrated reported, OJ was arrested in 2007 after attacking two men in Las Vegas after he claimed they'd stolen sports memorabilia from him. The following year, he was sentenced to up to 33 years in prison, but after he served nine years, he was released on parole.
Teresa & Joe Giudice
This former Real Housewives of New Jersey couple both ended up in hot water in 2013 when their bankruptcy filing and loan applications revealed that they'd been lying about their income. Teresa Giudice was sentenced to 15 months in prison, while Joe Giudice received 41 months and was later deported to Italy.
Lauryn Hill
In 2013, Lauryn Hill served three months in federal prison after pleading guilty to failing to pay taxes on more than $1.8 million of her income. After she was released, she had to finish out her sentence under home confinement.
Amber Portwood
Teen Mom OG star Amber Portwood served 17 months of a five-year sentence in 2013 after she was arrested on drug charges. At the time, Amber opted to go to jail rather than rehab, though she did participate in a substance abuse program while behind bars.
