Amos Yee breaks parole conditions in US, new prison mugshots released
Yee also explained how he broke his parole in a January 2024 blog post.
Matthias Ang
New mugshots of Singaporean Amos Yee, showing him sporting a shaved head, have been released by the Illinois Department of Corrections in the U.S.
However, Yee still retains more hair relative to his initial incarceration at Illinois River Correctional Center, after he was sentenced to six years in prison in December 2021.
He is currently in custody at the Danville Correctional Center, a medium-security prison for adult males.
Yee: I broke my parole by using the internet for several hours daily, visited eight churches
Yee had been moved to Danville Correctional Center from Stateville Correctional Center, a maximum-security prison, CNA reported in December 2023.He had ended up back in custody on Nov. 7, 2023, after being released on parole on Oct. 7, 2023.
At the time of his release on parole, he had served about half of his six-year jail term.
He was convicted after he was found to have groomed a teenage girl online and asked her for her naked pictures.
In a blog post on Jan. 25, 2024 which Yee said was written from prison, Yee explained he had broken his parole by going to the library to use the internet five to 10 hours a day, and visiting eight churches.
Under the U.S. Sex Offender Registration and Notification Act, a registered sex offender cannot access the internet while on parole.
New projected parole date is November 2025
According to the Illinois Department of Corrections, Yee's new projected parole date is Nov. 7, 2025.As for his projected discharge date, it has been given as "three years to life - to be determined".
Yee's case
Yee was convicted after the court heard that he had befriended a 14-year-old girl in February 2019.Yee was 20 then.
They got into an “online courtship”, which lasted till July 2019.
He repeatedly asked for her naked photos during that time.
The girl had informed Yee she was 14 years old.
After getting the photos, Yee then distributed photographs of her online, the court also heard.
Yee was sentenced on Dec. 3, 2017 after pleading guilty to charges of grooming and possessing child pornography.
Yee entered a plea deal and 16 other charges were dismissed as part of the deal.
The jail term was backdated to October 2020, when US marshals arrested Yee at his apartment in Chicago’s Norwood Park East neighbourhood.
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement told CNA on Oct. 13, 2023, that it was unable to comment "due to privacy concerns" if Yee will be deported to Singapore.
