The college student who broke into Sarah Palin’s email account has been sent to prison after all. The federal judge in the case sentenced David Kernell to 1-year in prison but recommended he serve that time at a halfway house. The Federal Bureau of Prisons rejected the judges request and Kernell has been sent to prison.

The college student who hacked into Sarah Palin’s email account at the height of the 2008 election has been sentenced to one year in prison. However, the judge is allowing David Kernell to serve out his sentence at a Knoxville halfway house.

U.S. District Judge Thomas Phillips noted the sentence for David Kernell goes on the books as a term of imprisonment. He said the U.S. Bureau of Prisons could override his recommendation that Kernell spend his days over the next year at the Midway Rehabilitative Center on Magnolia Avenue.

Phillips said Kernell’s actions in 2008 merited some form of imprisonment not because his victim was a prominent political figure but because what he did threatened "the expectation of privacy that we all have."

I think it’s a fair sentence. What he did was outrageous and he deserves to be punished. He’ll be a convicted felon for the rest of his life.

Kernell spoke in court for the first time since being charged:

"I’m not going to make any excuses," he told Phillips in court. "For the rest of my life I’m going to be ashamed and guilty for what I’ve done."

I’m glad to hear it.

The son of a Tennessee state lawmaker was indicted today for hacking Gov. Sarah Palin’s email account and then publishing the contents on the web.

The son of a Democratic Tennessee state lawmaker pleaded not guilty Wednesday to hacking the e-mail account of Republican vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin.

David Kernell, 20, of Knoxville, Tenn. entered the plea in federal court in Knoxville, the same day prosecutors unsealed an indictment charging him with intentionally accessing Palin’s e-mail account without authorization.

Kernell, an economics student at the University of Tennessee, was brought into court wearing handcuffs and shackles on his ankles.

He was released without posting bond, but the court forbade him from owning a computer and limited his Internet use to checking e-mail and doing class work.

This kid shouldn’t be allowed to use a computer period. I’m glad to see him prosecuted for what he did. Publishing the contents of Gov. Palin’s private email account was outrageous and totally unacceptable. Hopefully, this event will serve as a wake-up call to young David that he’s not a kid anymore and actions have consequences in life.

The one satisfying part of this story is that Kernell hacked Palin’s email with the intent of finding something politically damaging, and instead found absolutely nothing but normal emails and a few family photos.