Former Arkansas Sen. Bookout reports to federal prison

A former state senator who pleaded guilty in March 2015 to mail fraud is now serving an 18-month sentence in federal prison, according to the Federal Bureau of Prisons website.

The website noted that former Sen. Paul Bookout, D-Jonesboro, 53, was booked into the AUSP-Thomson facility in order to serve the prison sentence. The facility is located in Thomson, Ill., a small town near the Illinois-Iowa border.

According to the website, the prison is an administrative security U.S. penitentiary with an adjacent minimum security camp. The prison holds 113 male inmates.

Bookout was sentenced in March 2016 to the prison sentence, content partners KAIT and KATV reported earlier this year. In addition to the prison sentence, Bookout was given a two-year supervised release and ordered to pay $150,000 in restitution.

The case surrounding Bookout, who had served as president pro tempore of the state Senate, centered around allegations that he violated state campaign finance law.

An ethics complaint was filed in 2013 by Bob Hester of Jonesboro. In the complaint, Hester alleged that Bookout was using campaign finance funds for personal use.

The Arkansas Ethics Commission voted 4-0 in July 2013 that Bookout had used $53,305.07 in campaign donations for personal use, did not keep sufficient records during the 2012 campaign and failed to itemize 93 expenditures, totaling nearly $40,000.

The Arkansas State Police as well as the FBI then began investigating the issue further. Bookout waived indictment and pleaded guilty to one count of mail fraud in March 2015.

At the time, federal prosecutors alleged that the campaign finance abuses occurred over several years.