Looks like Abby Lee Miller is currently playing a waiting game when it comes to her prison release date.
Looks like Abby Lee Miller is currently playing a waiting game when it comes to her prison release date.
The former Dance Moms star was set to be released from prison on Feb. 20 after she was originally sentenced to one year and one day in federal prison last July for bankruptcy fraud, but is currently still serving time at the Federal Correctional Complex in Victorville, California. ET spoke with prison consultant and coach Jennifer Myers -- who coached Miller before she went to jail -- who explained why her release date has been pushed back.
According to Myers, the decision is not personal to Miller, but due to a shift in the protocol of the Bureau of Prisons.
“Basically, the prisons pay for the inmates to go to halfway houses," Myers explains. "In the past, let’s say each warden had a budget for eight halfway house beds per month, they were often releasing 20 women to beds instead, because they wanted to help get them out. But the director of Federal Bureau of Prisons, Mark Inch, started a crackdown on the budgets, and is making sure they don’t go over budget anymore.”
“A warden has to approve a halfway house release," Myers continues. "Abby got her official out date, it was Feb. 20. She received that piece of paper that told her that and that she would be going to the halfway house in Van Nuys. You have to make those plans in advance. But clearly, the prison went over budget so she could no longer be released.”
Myers says 51-year-old Miller is definitely upset over the delay, and was kept in the dark about the status of her release date.
“Abby just didn’t get out, that’s how she found out about it," she says. "It was a pretty upsetting thing for her over the weekend to not be able to talk to anybody and find out what was happening. It didn’t make any sense. She had her halfway house plan and they just weren’t communicating with her that it wasn’t happening anymore.”
Miller will likely receive an updated early release date, though Myers notes just like the last time it is no guarantee. How long she is required to stay at the halfway house is also unknown at this time.
"She will get that new piece of paper and they will get her a bed and let’s see if it sticks," Myers says. "It’s a waiting game right now for Abby. At this point they are trying to figure it out. They are submitting to get her a new out date and get her another bed, but it has to go through many different places in the Bureau of Prisons to even get that new out date.”
In January, a source told ET that Miller has lost approximately 100 pounds since entering prison last July, and is feeling "great." According to the source, she has already requested multiple surgeries for when she's released, including a tummy tuck, breast lift and excess skin removal.
Last April, prior to her sentencing, the dance instructor underwent gastric bypass surgery, a procedure that reduced her stomach by 80 percent.
For more on Miller, watch below:
-- Reporting by Rande Iaboni
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