Grammy Winner Lauryn Hill Sentenced to Three Months in Prison

Grammy-winning singer Lauryn Hill has been sentenced to three months in prison for failing to pay about $1m in taxes.
The 37-year-old former Fugees star was also sentenced to three months of home confinement. She pleaded guilty last year.

During a forceful statement to the judge, Hill explained she had always meant to eventually pay the taxes but was unable to during a period of time when she dropped out of the music business.

She said: "I needed to be able to earn so I could pay my taxes, without compromising the health and welfare of my children, and I was being denied that."

Before the sentencing, her attorney said Hill had paid more than $970,000 (£624,000) to satisfy the New Jersey state and federal tax liabilities.

Hill had faced a maximum sentence of one year each on three counts. Her attorney had sought probation.

It was not clear when or where she would report to prison.

Hill rose to fame with The Fugees and began her solo career in 1998 with the critically acclaimed album The Miseducation Of Lauryn Hill.

She then largely disappeared from public view to raise her six children, five of whom she had with Rohan Marley, the son of reggae singer Bob Marley.

At the time of her arrest last year, Hill wrote a criticism rejecting pop culture's "climate of hostility, false entitlement, manipulation, racial prejudice, sexism and ageism".

She wrote: "Over-commercialisation and its resulting restrictions and limitations can be very damaging and distorting to the inherent nature of the individual.

"I did not deliberately abandon my fans, nor did I deliberately abandon any responsibilities, but I did however put my safety, health and freedom and the freedom, safety and health of my family first over all other material concerns!

"I also embraced my right to resist a system intentionally opposing my right to whole and integral survival."