UPDATE (3/15/2022): Jussie Smollett has been moved to a new jail cell with a standard bed instead of one designed for restraining mental health patients, but his brother says he’s still worried.
“At this point, our biggest priority is getting our brother out of jail. He’s a strong individual, but it’s not right. It’s traumatic. It’s a mental marathon. We want to get him out,” brother Jocqui Smollett told Rolling Stone on Tuesday.
Earlier in the day, Cook County sheriff’s officials confirmed Jussie Smollett had been relocated to the new cell, saying it was because medical personnel needed his prior cell for someone else. “Mr. Smollett was never restrained to a bed or anything else in the cell. The bed was never equipped with restraints,” the department said in a statement.
Jussie Smollett’s lawyers and family are demanding an emergency suspension of the actor’s five-month jail sentence, saying “vicious threats” including a highly disturbing anonymous phone call raise serious concerns about his safety behind bars.
One of Smollett’s siblings received the alarming call Friday morning on the number that was given as his emergency jail contact when he was taken into custody Thursday night following sentencing for his hate hoax conviction, a Smollett spokeswoman says.
