It's going to take a long time for Bill Cosby to pay off his reported $282,000 of unpaid
legal bills at least if he's planning to use his prison earnings.
According to TMZ, the sitcom star was once the world's highest-paid actor, raking in
a total of $84 million in 1986 and 1987.
Today, he'll be lucky to pull in a meager $0.45 per hour at the Phoenix State Correctional
Institution in Pennsylvania, where he's serving a three to ten-year sentence.
Cosby began his stay in September 2018, after being convicted of drugging and assaulting
a Temple University employee in 2004, as CNN reports.
Though Philly.com claims the actor is currently flying solo in his own cell, he's expected
to eventually join the general population.
The star of 1980s Jell-O commercials can at least look forward to mealtime, as long as
he isn't sick of pudding.
The sweet treat is sometimes served as a dessert though the prison reportedly doesn't carry
Jell-O brand.
For many other celebrities who've spent time behind bars, being incarcerated is a harrowing
experience even if you're in one of America's cushier white-collar prisons.
If Bill Cosby goes through what some of these celebs did in prison, he's going to have a
very rough time.
Let's take a look at the experiences of these famous names in the slammer to see exactly
what Cosby's in for.
Lindsay Lohan
It's clear by now that Lindsay Lohan is a magnet for controversy.
The star's legal troubles are almost as infamous as her film career, but she found a strange
solace in the slammer.
According to the Daily Mail, Lohan was put in solitary confinement in 2010 after she
violated probation.
She described her visit as "very scary" and "jarring" in a 2014 interview on The Jonathan
Ross Show, yet there were positives too.
"The weirdest part for me was I finally had silence in my life."
Lohan claimed the women around her were, quote, "in there for murder."
The actress reportedly wound up spending 14 days in solitary confinement rather than serving
out her full 90-day sentence.
"As terrified as I was and as scared as I was, I finally felt like I didn't have to
answer to anyone, and I didn't have to do anything for anyone."
Martha Stewart
Lifestyle guru Martha Stewart had to serve five months in 2004 for lying about a stock
sale.
Despite the short stay at West Virginia's Alderson Federal Prison Camp, Stewart called
her experience "horrifying."
In a podcast interview with Katie Couric, the millionaire homemaker claimed,
"No one should have to go through that kind of indignity really except for murderers,
and there are a few other categories.
[…] It's a very, very awful thing."
"That saying that it only makes you better, oh my gosh!"
"Bull?"
"Bull!
It's terrible."
Stewart claims there was nothing good about the experience and that, quote, "lots and
lots of disturbing things" go on in even minimum-security facilities.
"If it was 2001 the food was expired in 1999.
I mean, you would not want to eat that food."
Paris Hilton
Hotel heiress Paris Hilton was arrested on suspicion of drunk driving in 2006, and her
probation was revoked after a second reckless driving incident.
In May 2007, she was sentenced to 45 days in jail, but ended up serving just half that.
Surprisingly, Hilton found some sort of peace behind bars.
According to E! News, she said,
"Just being away from everything, you know, the craziness, the paparazzi, I've had a lot
of alone time to think and read and write.
Even though it's been horrible and really hard, I think that God makes everything happen
for a reason and this is my time to figure out what my purpose is in life."
Hilton claimed jail was the most difficult thing she's ever had to experience because
the food was, quote, "inedible and horrible," her cell was tiny, and the noise made it hard
to sleep.
Chris Brown
Controversial star Chris Brown has plenty of experience with the legal system's facilities,
anger management classes, and probation programs.
But he apparently won't ever be spitting bars from behind bars because his imagination is
stifled in the slammer.
He told Billboard in 2014,
"Jail isn't a place of many creative spirits.
[...] I put it on hold until I got out.
Jail is more of a regimen and a structure.
I'm more of a free spirit when it comes to creating music, painting and art."
E! News reported that inmates at Men's Central Jail in Los Angeles, where Brown spent time,
are sometimes served spaghetti and meatballs, but troublemakers don't get any dessert.
Brown's room, where he stayed in solitary confinement, allegedly consisted of little
more than a bed frame.