T.I.'s wife Tameka 'Tiny' Cottle has blasted prison authorities for trying to "break" the rapper's spirit by placing him back behind bars a day after his release.
The Live Your Life hitmaker, real name Clifford Harris, Jr., left an Arkansas incarceration facility on Wednesday (31Aug11) after serving 10 months of an 11-month sentence for a probation violation.
He was due to transfer to a halfway house in his native Georgia to complete his punishment, and had made arrangements to travel the 375 miles (603 kilometres) to the centre in his own luxury coach.
But T.I. was hauled back into custody on Thursday (01Sep11) after prison bosses took issue with his method of transport, insisting the hip-hop star only revealed he was taking a van to Georgia and not a deluxe bus.
The controversy has angered his wife Cottle because she claims jail officials who waved the rapper goodbye in Arkansas saw no problem with the vehicle - and even asked to take photos with the rapper in front of the coach.
She tells Tmz.com, "This is a bunch of bulls**t... they should have said something before he got on the bus... T.I. would have politely gotten into a van... (Prison officials) walked him over, took pics and told him good luck in life."
However, Cottle, a former member of R&B group Xscape, is confident T.I. won't let the setback get in the way of rebuilding his life.
She says, "T.I. is one of the strongest individuals I know... and they (are) just trying to break him in more ways than one and it's not gonna work! 'Cause what God got for him, can't no man take that away... period (sic)!"