Prison For Former Ill. Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr.

A federal judge has sentenced former Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr. to 30 months in prison, following his guilty plea that he engaged in a scheme to spend $750,000 in campaign funds on personal items.

U.S. District Court Judge Amy Berman Jackson said Wednesday that as a public official Jackson was supposed to live up to a higher standard.

Jackson's wife was also sentenced to 1 year for filing false tax returns. Sandra Jackson admitted in a guilty plea earlier this year that from mid-2006 through mid-October of last year, she failed to report $600,000 in income that she and her husband earned from 2005 to 2011.

Mrs. Jackson was a Chicago alderman before she resigned during a federal investigation of the couple.

Jackson, 48, the son of civil rights leader Jesse Jackson, had been a Democratic congressman from Illinois from 1995 until he resigned last November.

According to court papers in the case, he used campaign money to buy items including a $43,350 gold-plated men's Rolex watch.

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