Music artist, T.I. was sentenced Friday, March 27, to 366 days in a Georgia prison as part of his plea deal with prosecutors over a 2007 felony weapons charge. The charge originated on Oct. 13, 2007, when cops arrested T.I. for attempting to buy unregistered machine guns and silencers. The arrest took place shortly before he was scheduled to headline the BET Hip Hop Awards.

He will be eligible for early release if he demonstrates good behavior. It is interesting to note that if his sentence were one year or less, he would have been mandated to serve the entire length of time in prison without the possibility of parole. Although it is unknown where he will serve his time, court official acknowledged that T.I. will get credit for the 305 days he has already spent in home detention.

T.I., a 28-year-old music artist whose real name is Clifford Harris Jr., is required to voluntarily turn himself into prison within the next 30 to 60 days, but is not expected to do so before May 19. According to Northern Georgia District Judge Charles Pannell Jr., T.I. has commitments, which will keep him from being incarcerated before May 19.

Although T.I. originally faced as much as 10 years in prison, he pleaded guilty to a federal weapons charge and agreed to complete 1,000 hours of community service before his sentencing. He also paid a $100,000 fine and will complete an additional 500 hours of community service after his prison sentence is completed. Once out of jail, we will have three years of supervised release.

As part of his community service agreement, T.I. made 262 public appearances, taking part in a pro-voting campaign, worked with children and appeared in the MTV reality show, “Road to Redemption.” He has managed to complete a total of 1,030 hours of the 1,500 community service hours ordered. And finally, as an additional part of the deal, T.I. agreed to forfeit all of the firearms and ammunition involved in the incident and waive his right to an appeal.

It is clear to see that T.I. has taken a bad situation and a big personal mistake and taken responsibility for his actions. He has turned a negative experience into a positive experience by committing to spreading the word to help end violence in our nation's youth population.