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Dance Moms’ Abby Lee Miller Settles into Prison Life

Summary: Former star of the reality show Dance Moms, Abby Lee Miller reported to prison to serve her 366-day sentence for bankruptcy fraud.

The former Dance Moms star has reported to her new home for the next 366 days. Abby Lee Miller, 50, could be spending the next year and a day at the Victorville Federal Correctional Institution in California. Miller was charged in October 2015 with bankruptcy fraud. There, of course, is always the possibility of an early release but experts still expect to see her serve at least 10 months of her sentence.

Miller filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy but attempted to hide her $775,000 income from the Lifetime series from the court proceedings by putting the money in secret bank accounts between 2012 and 2013. In June 2016, she pled guilty to bankruptcy fraud.

Investigators determined that Miller split up $120,000 in Australian money so that her friends could carry the amounts in plastic bags in their luggage in August 2014 without having to report the money. She promised to forfeit that money in January.

Once she has served her sentence, she will have two years of supervised release. She was also fined $40,000 and required to pay $120,000. She must also provide a DNA sample for the felony charge.

So what can Miller expect in her new home? Victorville is located two hours from Los Angeles and is considered a low-security facility with female criminals charged with non-violent crimes. There is a medium-security prison on site that holds male inmates.

She can still go by her luxury items from the commissary like makeup, snacks, air fresheners, sunglasses, playing cards, and cough drops. The meals are not half bad with jellied toast for breakfast, burgers with fruit for lunch, sandwiches for dinner, and sloppy joes and tacos on the weekend.

Miller can also keep up with her dancing. Who knows, she may even start a new hit reality series called “Dancing with the Inmates.” The facility encourages inmates to participate in fitness activities such as yoga, step aerobics, and aerobics. There are also a number of other activities to keep her busy for the next several months including crochet, song writing, and cartoon drawing.

Before arriving at Victorville, Miller told PEOPLE, “I’m afraid of being physically abused or raped. I have to stay busy. If I thought about it every day, I’d just sit around and cry.”

Miller tried to blame her financial problems on Lifetime, explaining that they won’t allow her to take any other jobs. She told Us Weekly, “I’ve been offered some other jobs, but they’re on camera. And, according to Lifetime, I can’t be on camera with any other network but theirs. I let people screw me right and left. I’m not a criminal mastermind.”

Dance Moms is a reality TV show that started in 2011 on Dance Moms. The show follows the training and careers of child dancers with a focus on the altercations between Miller and the dancers’ moms. The show had been filmed at her studio, Abby Lee Dance Company in Pittsburgh. The show since moved to Los Angeles.

Miller has been replaced by Cheryl Burke on Dance Moms. The first season with Burke finished filming days ago. A source told Us that the girls were a little sad that their old instructor is going to prison but no one else cares and is generally happy about her being gone.

Do you think Miller will turn this event into a positive opportunity? Tell us your thoughts in the comments below.

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Photo: vimeo.com

Amanda Griffin: