Sherri Papini, woman who faked her kidnapping, released from prison

Sherri Papini, who faked her kidnapping and lied to the FBI, has been released from federal prison and will be overseen at a community confinement center.

The 41-year-old mother of two from Redding, Calif., reportedly went missing in November of 2016. She was found three weeks later, on Thanksgiving, approximately 145 miles from where she had vanished with a chain around her waist and injuries that were self-inflicted, according to authorities.

When authorities found her, Pappini was abnormally thin and weak, was covered in bruises and had a brand on her shoulder that she claimed was done by two Hispanic women, her alleged captors. But her story unraveled when investigators found male DNA on her clothes that belonged to an ex-boyfriend, James Reyes, she was staying with nearly 600 miles away in Southern California while she claimed to be missing.

Papini admitted to faking her kidnapping in March of 2022, pleading guilty to staging the abduction and lying to the FBI about it. In September of that year, she was sentenced to 18 months in prison. As part of her plea bargain, she was required to pay more than $300,000 in restitution.

Papini has been reportedly released to a local Residential Reentry Center (community confinement center) in Sacramento managed by the Federal Bureau of Prisons (BOP) Residential Reentry Management (RRM) field office.

Community confinement is a condition of probation or supervised release. According to the BOP’s RRM offices contract with residential reentry centers, they are also known as halfway houses, to assist those nearing release, according to the BOP’s official website.

There are 22 RRM offices nationwide, including the one in Sacramento, and the RRM staff monitor the local centers to ensure they provide the community-based services that will assist inmates in their reentry into society.

A total of 14,610 federal offenders are managed by the 22 RRM field offices, of which 8,080 are supervised at residential reentry centers, according to the RRM website.

The Hill contacted the RRM office in Sacramento to confirm her release.