Lil Wayne is currently serving a year’s sentence in Riker’s Island after pleading guilty to weapons possession in New York earlier this year. He’s been in prison for about seven months and was originally expected to get out on good behavior after eight months. It looks like Wayne could be behind bars for a little longer than expected, as he was caught by staff with a contraband mp3 charger and headphones, something that is off limits to prisoners. He is allowed to listen to the radio, though, and also passes the time exercising, playing UNO, reading and answering fan mail. He’s been sent to solitary confinement as a result of the mp3 player, which was found with another inmate in a routine search. Wayne had the accessories for the player, and he tried to hide them by putting them inside a potato chip bag in the trash.

Lil’ Wayne has been tossed in Rikers Island’s version of solitary confinement after he was found to have a pair of headphones and an MP3 charger in his cell.

Weezy will be in punitive segregation, but he was already in a private cell. The difference is … now he will have less interaction with inmates and will spend up to 23 hours a day in an isolation cell.

His out-of-cell time is now restricted to visits, religious services and one hour of recreational time and his phone privileges are reduced to one personal phone call a week.

Wayne was found with a pair of headphones and a charger for an MP3 player and another inmate was said to be hiding the MP3 player.

Wayne has been locked up since March on a gun possession charge.

[From TMZ]

As Fox News points out, Wayne told Rolling Stone ahead of his prison sentence that he would have an mp3 player in jail. He said “I’ll have an iPod, and I’ll make sure they keep sending me beats.” This player wasn’t an iPod, but it was still off limits. It will now make his remaining sentence that much more difficult.

Lil Wayne has a website updated by letters he sends from Rikers. He’s very grateful to his fans for their support and mentions many people by name. He hasn’t yet addressed this issue over the mp3 player as it’s sure to take time for him to write letters and get them posted online. He’s staying positive and seems to be taking his sentence in stride. He writes:

During my prison stint, I want my fans to know I love you. I want all of you to know that I appreciate all the mail I get, and this is my way of saying thank you. The F is for Family, Friends, and Fans.

Love. Live. Life. Proceed. Progress. That’s who I am and who I’ll always be. You see, we’re all living on borrowed time, so I’m not worried about this situation. Life happens quick. The more time you spend contemplating what you should have done…you lose valuable time planning what you can and will do. Trying to tear down the past prohibits you from building up your future. So for my time here, my physical will be confined to the yard. My love and my spirit, however, know no boundaries.

[From WeezyThanxYou.com]

That’s really nice and I hope he hangs in there. From what I’ve seen of the guy in interviews, he seems like a decent person who is genuinely grateful to his fans. I was honestly surprised by what a decent guy he comes across as. Yes he never should have had an unlicensed gun but I don’t get how he got a year in Rikers for that charge when other celebrities had multiple DUIs with passengers in the car and got off with probation.