SINGAPORE: Amos Yee, the 24-year-old Singaporean jailed in America, looks drastically in new prison photos that have emerged online compared to previous years.
The photos, uploaded on the official website of the Illinois Department of Corrections (IDOC), show a visibly older-looking Yee wearing a blue jacket, with his trademark long hair shorn completely.
Yee is almost halfway through the six-year sentence he is serving in the Illinois River Correctional Center for child porn and grooming. The IDOC website shows that his projected parole date is set for later this year, on 6 Oct.
Yee’s projected discharge date is 8 Oct 2026. His profile on the IDOC website states that he is required to remain on the sex offenders’ registry in the United States.
It is clear that the past three years of incarceration have taken a toll on Yee. When he was first remanded by the Chicago Police Department in 2020, he appeared a lot more youthful. In more recent photos released last year, Yee still had his long hair although he looked more unhappy than he does in the latest mugshots.
How it started: Amos Yee’s controversial career
Yee first gained notoriety in Singapore as a 16-year-old in 2015 for his controversial blog posts and videos, in which he criticised the government and various religious figures.
He criticised Singapore’s founding Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew in a YouTube video shortly after Lee‘s death on 23 March 2015. He was charged with offending religious feelings and obscenity, found guilty and sentenced to four weeks’ jail in May 2015.
He was again arrested and sentenced to six weeks’ jail and fined $2,000 for wounding religious feelings in September 2016.
In December 2016, Yee fled Singapore and sought asylum in the United States. He was granted asylum in 2017, but his troubles with the law continued.
Why was Amos Yee jailed in US?
Yee was taken into custody in October 2020 when authorities obtained messages that he had exchanged with a 14-year-old girl from Texas between April and July 2019. He shared nude photos with her via WhatsApp. Prosecutors asserted that the girl had informed Yee of her age on multiple occasions.
Yee had initially befriended the girl when he was 20 years old. The girl reported the relationship to a group of individuals interested in exposing paedophiles when their relationship deteriorated.
During his sentencing for grooming and child pornography, a judge warned Yee that he could be deported to Singapore and prohibited from re-entering the US.