Mr. Smith Goes to Prison

Even a short prison sentence affect people for the rest of their lives. That’s certainly the case for Jeff Smith. In 2006, when he was 32 years old, Jeff Smith won a seat in the Missouri State Senate. Three years later, his political career came to an abrupt end when he was prosecuted for lying to federal agents about an illegal campaign flier. He resigned his seat and was sentenced to a year and a day in a federal prison in rural Kentucky—500 miles from his St. Louis home.