Celebrities Who Served Time in Federal Prison

Jan. 5, 2015— -- intro: Teresa Giudice is officially a federal inmate.

The "Real Housewives of New Jersey" star is the latest celebrity to do time in federal prison.

The 42-year-old reported to the Federal Correctional Institution in Danbury, Connecticut, this morning, beginning her 15-month sentence after pleading guilty to tax fraud.

Her attorney, James J. Leonard Jr., told ABC News, "She was anxious to get in, get this thing started, get it behind her, and get back to her family. Her four girls are her primary focus."

Giudice prepared for her time behind bars by corresponding with recently released female prisoners from Danbury. She was told to be "friendly but guarded" at the prison, and to savor moments with her family, Leonard said.

"They told her to keep her head up, that she would make it through," Leonard said.

Giudice is not the first famous face at Danbury. Click through to see our roundup of stars who've done time at Danbury as well as other federal prisons.

quicklist:title: Lauryn Hilltext: Grammy winning musician Lauryn Hill was the most recent celebrity inmate at FCI-Danbury. The 39-year-old singer/rapper was released from prison last October after serving a three-month sentence for failing to pay taxes on more than $1.5 million earned from 2005 to 2007.

Hill stayed busy behind bars working on her music. "Consumerism," a brand new track she premiered on the eve of her release, was recorded in part before she entered a federal prison in Danbury last July, then completed via phone calls and emails while serving out her term. After her release, the mother of six and former member of the Fugees was given a six-week reprieve from her three-month home detention in order to go on the road and tour.media: 28007597

quicklist:title: Piper Kermantext: Former Danbury inmate Piper Kerman helped make the federal prison famous with her memoir, "Orange Is the New Black," which is the basis for Netflix's popular, award-winning series of the same name.

More than 10 years after carrying a bag full of drug money from Chicago to Brussels, what she has called a reckless indiscretion in her 20s after graduating from Smith College, Kerman served 13 months in the women’s correctional facility. After her release in 2005, she published her memoir and has since become a vocal campaigner for prison reform.media: 28007399

quicklist:title: Martha Stewarttext: Martha Stewart famously served 10 months at West Virginia’s Alderson prison after she found guilty in March 2004 of obstructing justice. Stewart had been investigated by the SEC for selling thousands of shares of a stock right before the price plummeted. She was released from prison in March 2005.

This past October, the domestic doyenne opened up about that period in her life, which what she called "one deep hole." "Luckily, I have an extremely strong, healthy constitution, so my health never suffered," she told E! News anchor Giuliana Rancic in front of thousands of small business owners for the first annual Quickbooks Connect conference. She said she had "health, optimism and that curiosity to see what shouldn’t happen, what you can overcome. So, I overcame a very difficult, nasty situation."

Stewart explained how she stayed optimistic during her prison stint.

“Well, I wasn’t dying,” she said. “So, I couldn’t have fancy food for a while. That was fine. I was sent far away, but my friends came to visit me regularly and it was just a peculiar moment in time. It cannot define you. You cannot let something like that define a good person’s life. I am a good person and I am a creative person.”media: 28007305

quicklist:title: Wesley Snipestext: Wesley Snipes was released from a federal prison in Pennsylvania last April after serving 28 months of his three-year sentence for tax evasion. The “Blade” star was convicted in 2008 on charges that he failed to file income tax returns during a three-year period. He lost his appeal in an Atlanta court and entered prison in 2010.media: 28008001

quicklist:title: Lil Kimtext: Like Stewart, Kimberly Jones, the rapper known as Lil' Kim, served 10 months in a federal prison in 2005 after she was found guilty of lying to a jury about her friends' involvement in a shooting in 2001. Judge Gerard E. Lynch even compared Kim to Stewart when he sentenced her to one year and a day, saying he wanted to be careful not to treat the rapper more severely than the lifestyle magnate who had been convicted a year earlier and who, he said, "happens to be older and whiter and whose entertainment following is richer."

Anticipating that she would end up behind bars, Kim spent the months before preparing her fourth album, "The Naked Truth," which was released during her incarceration.media: 28008089

quicklist:title: Richard Hatchtext: As the first winner to claim the $1 million prize during the inaugural season of “Survivor” in 2000, Richard Hatch was something of a cautionary tale. Years later, in 2006, he was sentenced to to 51 months in federal prison for failing to pay taxes on his “Survivor” winnings. He served nearly three years, but was sent back for another 11 months after still failing to make good on income tax owed from his 2000 "Survivor" win. media: 28007799