What Josh Duggar's Life In Prison Is Really Like

"19 Kids and Counting" introduced the world to the Duggars, Independent Baptists and members of the Institute in Basic Life Principles (IBLP). The Christian fundamentalist organization that has been likened to a "cult" in true crime documentaries like "Shiny Happy People" docuseries and elsewhere. The oldest of the 19 children is Josh Duggar, who rose to fame alongside his family. But his story came to an end when he was arrested in April 2021 for receiving and possessing child pornography. He was found guilty on one count of each charge and sentenced to 12 and a half years in prison.

Duggar is serving his time at FCI Seagoville federal prison in Texas. A picture of his daily life can be pieced together by various reports on incidents at the facility, its protocols for inmates, and what we know about his various appeals. Here's what Josh Duggar's life in prison is really like.

FCI Seagoville is a seven-building, low-security prison housing around 1,800 inmates. Josh Duggar's life at the facility isn't far off from what you'd expect — he receives three meals daily, and on weekends he gets a coffee hour and brunch. A commissary list from the Federal Bureau of Prisons shows what inmates at the prison can purchase: honey pepper turkey sticks, chili and beans, hot beef summer sausage, taco mix, tuna, yogurt trail mix, oatmeal, and even popcorn, among other things.

According to the government agency's "Admissions & Orientation Information Handbook," Duggar must follow a pretty strict dress code Monday through Friday from 7:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m.. Specifically, "clean wrinkle-free" khaki shirt and khaki pants. His shoes must always be tied, his belt buckled, and his pant legs hanging over the outside of his shoes. With the exception of the top button, his shirt must be buttoned and tucked inside his trousers.

An inmate that wrote to Forbes claimed that the prison's housing is not a traditional design. "The inmate housing is entirely communal, i.e., no self-contained rooms (unlike some institutions having in-cell toilets, sinks, showers, etc.); and activities (such as dining, recreation, education, library, chapel, commissary, laundry, medical) all occur in specialized locations, separate from the dormitories, and conducted en masse," they wrote. Elsewhere, In Touch Weekly reported on prison documents that claimed his room comes with beds, a folding chair, laundry bag, and storage space, as well as a pillow, blanket, and towels.

Josh Duggar was transferred to FCI Seagoville in June 2022. Just over a year later, in July 2023, The U.S. Sun reported that the prison was being scorched by a record-breaking Texas heatwave amid no air conditioning, with some inmates even "passing out." "Most of the buildings in Seagoville don't have air conditioning for the inmates," a loved one of a convict told the outlet. At the time, temperatures in Seagoville, a suburb of Dallas just southeast of the city, skyrocketed into the 90s and 100s.

The next month, inmates told the Fort Worth Star-Telegram that temperatures had reached at least 100 degrees. Some people passed out, others had seizures, and one officer at the facility was even hospitalized. Robert Freeman, president of the officers' union at the prison, commented on the apparently vicious conditions at the time. "No one should have to go through the conditions the officers and inmates are going through," he said.

[Featured image by Federal Bureau of Prisons via Wikimedia Commons | Cropped and scaled]

Josh Duggar has appealed his sentence two times since being put behind bars — once in 2022 to the 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, which was denied, and again in February 2024 to the Supreme Court, which was also denied. In the first case, Duggar's lawyer asked for a new trial, claiming that law enforcement seized his phone during the raid on Wholesale Motorcars, the Arkansas car dealership he owned. At the time of the suprise search, Duggar was allegedly trying to contact legal representation, but the court ruled that he "voluntarily acquiesced" to questioning. Little Rock police determined a computer at Dugger's business to be the source of child pornography that was being shared on the internet and arrested him on-site.

The second appeal asked the Supreme Court to consider his alternative perpetrator theory, which suggests his former employee, Caleb Williams, as the culprit behind the sharing of child pornography at his business. "Does the exclusion of relevant evidence of an alternative perpetrator based on a trial court's conclusion it is too speculative violate a criminal defendant's constitutional right to present a complete defense? " he asked. His request was included alongside others in a list that simply deemed them "denied."

Duggar is far from alone in his experiences. Here are some of the other celebrities who are still in prison.