The 'Chrisley Knows Best' star spoke from behind bars to Brian Entin.
Todd Chrisley is speaking out from behind bars.
Todd and his wife, Julie Chrisley, were convicted in November 2022 for conspiracy to commit bank fraud, conspiracy to defraud the United States and tax fraud, and reported to prison in January 2023. Though the reality stars were initially sentenced to a combined 19 years, Todd is serving his reduced 10-year prison sentence in Pensacola, Florida, while Julie is serving a reduced five-year sentence in Lexington, Kentucky.
Through Todd's lawyer, Brian Entin relayed questions to the reality star over the phone about the conditions of the prison he's serving his sentence at, and the fear he has for his safety. That interview aired during Chris Cuomo's NewsNation show, Cuomo.
The 54-year-old Chrisley Knows Best star recalled one scary instance that allegedly occurred while locked up. "There was a photograph taken of me while I was sleeping and sent to my daughter, asking for $2,600 a month for my protection," he said, via his lawyer.
As for the food in prison, Todd claimed, "The only food that I eat is what I make that I buy from the commissary."
"It is so disgustingly filthy," he told Entin. "The food is literally, I’m not exaggerating this…the food is dated, it's out of date, at minimum a year. It's a year past expiration."
Todd also claimed that the prison is "literally starving these men to death here. These men are getting…I don't know that they're getting, 1000 calories a day."
The reality star alleged that he's heard that a warden at the prison is "trying to break me by cutting down what you can buy in commissary."
"So, before she came here you could buy 12 packs of tuna a week and she cut it down to six and then it went from six to three. She had not given a reason," Todd claimed. "When I asked her about it, she said, 'Commissary is a privilege, not a right.'"
When it comes to what he's living off of while behind bars, Todd shared, "I eat tuna, I eat peanut butter. That's where I get protein. I eat like a pasta salad that I make, pasta that I get in commissary. And then I start over again doing the same thing the next week."
Continuing to slam the conditions of the prison, Todd claimed that there are rodents where the food is stored. "You've got rats, you've got squirrels in the storage facility where the food is," he said. "They just covered it up with plastic and tore the ceiling out because of all the black mold and found a dead cat in the ceiling that dropped down on top of the food."
Todd also claimed that the prison will say Entin was not able to meet him face-to-face because "it's a breach of security or whatever." However, Todd thinks that it's because "they don't want you in here where you can see what's really going on."
Entin reached out to the prison, who said that "there are nutritious foods" that are "up to date and fine."
The Federal Bureau of Prisons (FBOP) also gave a statement to ET following Todd's allegations. "It is the mission of the FBOP to operate facilities that are safe, secure, and humane. We take seriously our duty to protect the individuals entrusted in our custody, as well as maintaining the safety of our employees and the community. Humane treatment of the men and women in our custody is a top priority," their statement read in part. "...The quality of the food served to our incarcerated individual population is a priority of the FBOP and the food service mission is to provide healthy, nutritionally-sound, and appetizing meals that meet the needs of every individual. All food items are rotated by a first-in, first-out process. Expired food is discarded and not utilized."
When it comes to Todd not being able to speak with 50-year-old wife Julie amid their prison sentences, Todd said, "It's devastating."
"She and I email four or five times a day, but they will hold my emails and hold them on her end as well as a way of punishment to us because of what Savannah is doing," Todd said, referring to his daughter speaking out in interviews and on her podcast about her parents' living conditions behind bars. "So if I write her an email today, if I write her three or four, if I work out and then go to the computer and send all my kids an email every morning -- their current emails just say, 'I love you, just stay strong, God's got us' -- whatever we say, and anyone else's emails will go through within two hours. You may not get mine for five days later."
Despite what he's going through in prison, Todd told Entin that he's trying to stay positive. "God has a greater purpose. I know he's got a greater plan, and I'm not going to let the federal government break my faith," he said.
In September, Savannah spoke with ET about her parents' life behind bars.
"You have no air conditioning. It can be 115 degrees inside. You're padlocking ice machines, you're not giving proper medical care, you're giving people the wrong medication," Savannah alleged of the living conditions at both Todd and Julie's facilities.
Savannah also admitted during her interview with ET that she feared speaking out about the prison conditions because she thinks it could hurt her parents.
"Someone reached out to me and they were like, 'You better be careful, because by you saying these things, these guards could potentially place contraband on your mother or father to have them shipped to a higher security prison,'" the 26-year-old reality star claimed. "...It's so hard because it creates so much uproar, but my goal is to not create this divide, it's to create love. At the end of the day, these people are not their mistakes."
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