What to Know
After a few weeks of playing musical prisons, Josh Duggar has been moved to FCI Elkton in Ohio, and it looks like he’s there to stay for a while. There’s just one problem: This prison is significantly further away from his hometown of Springdale, Arkansas, which means it’ll be harder than ever for wife Anna Duggar and the couple’s seven kids to make the trip to see Josh. According to Josh’s attorney, it’s nearly “impossible.”
Josh was just moved to a facility in Lisbon, Ohio.
Until now, Josh has served most of his time at FCI Seagoville in Texas — a prison that Anna has reportedly been able to visit pretty frequently, considering the fact that it’s in a different state. But after Josh’s most recent attempt at an appeal was denied (again) in May, he was shuffled around to a few different facilities before finally landing at FCI Elkton, his fifth prison in five years.
No reason for Josh’s transfer has been confirmed, but we do know that his release date has been pushed back several times for violating prison rules.
It’s not an easy trip for Anna (or anyone else in his family) to make.
Josh’s new home away from home is about a 13 hour drive from his real home… and thinking of doing that drive with seven kids sounds like it would be an absolute nightmare for Anna, let alone frequent visits.
And when his attorney, Beau Brindley, spoke about the move to Us Weekly, he said that the relocation will make it really difficult for Josh to keep those family ties… while also making it clear that he and Josh believe he’s being retaliated against for what he told the court while appealing his case.
“The Bureau of Prisons wields arbitrary authority over prison placement. Inmates have no recourse to challenge,” he said. “In this instance, Josh did nothing but expose improprieties in the legal mail system at Seagoville during a hearing. As a result, he has been arbitrarily transferred to a facility so far from his family that visits will be almost impossible.”
This move may have been a way of punishing Josh.
Critics on Reddit believe that this move actually was retaliatory against Josh, with one person guessing that the system may have wanted to keep him as far away from Anna as possible.
“He co-opted Anna in his efforts to break the rules, so they made it harder for her to see him,” they wrote. “He also implicated the Segoville guards in his appeal filing, indicating he had formed inappropriate relationships with staff. They solved both problems by moving him. Break the rules, pay the consequences. What a concept.”
Others think that being able to see his family less is actually a positive for his children. “Probably best for his poor offspring. This cannot be a healthy relationship for them,” one person commented.
Well, they may have a point there.
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