Convicted Sheriff Robert Arnold says if he can be made into a criminal anybody can.

Arnold says his spirit was broken while in jail and segregated from other inmates.

Former sheriff says prosecution and prison reform needed.

Vaguely written criminal statutes make common understanding of laws difficult, Arnold says.

Imprisoned former Sheriff Robert Arnold wants prosecution and prison reform — and a pardon from President Donald Trump.

"I remain hopeful that President Trump will hear my plea for intervention, look into my case as he has done with other persons and public servants in similar positions and grant me a pardon or some other relief," Arnold says in a letter sent to The Daily News Journal.

"I know the law (at least I thought I did), I enforced the law and essentially I was the law," adds Arnold, who served from September 2010 until being suspended without pay by court order November 2016 prior to his conviction two months later. "As a twice-elected sheriff for Rutherford County, Tennessee, I feel relatively confident in saying that if I can be made into a criminal, anybody can be."

Arnold pleaded guilty January 2017 to wire fraud, honest services fraud and extortion. The charges pertained to illegally selling electronic cigarettes to inmates housed at the Rutherford County Jail in Murfreesboro through Arnold's JailCigs business.

The former sheriff is now serving a 50-month sentence, including time served before his guilty plea. Arnold is scheduled to be released May 14, 2020, while at the minimum-security Montgomery (Alabama) Federal Prison Camp at Maxwell Air Force Base.

"The turn of my life has taken has been sobering and certainly ironic," Arnold says. "This downward turn started with my, what I believed was legal, attempt to address the nicotine withdrawal issues (and collateral safety issues) that plague jails nationwide."

Arnold: Spirit broken in jail

The former sheriff has been incarcerated for most of his sentence since Sept. 28, 2016. His time behind bars started after a judge ruled there was probable cause that he violated his pretrial release conditions through domestic assault of his wife following a Labor Day altercation at their Murfreesboro home.

Prior to his May 2017 sentencing, Arnold spent time in a jail cell alone and segregated from other inmates.

"Unfortunately, as I learned in my circumstances, being behind bars gives prosecutors just the right amount of leverage to steal your will to fight for your rights," Arnold says.

"Through questionable circumstances, before I even had the opportunity to have my day in court, I was imprisoned in solitary confinement for 23 hours a day, supposedly for my own protection, only let out at night for 1 hour. By the time I hadn't seen sunlight in months, I began to question, with a broken spirit, if giving in was not a less painful option for both myself and my family, who I was also kept from."

The letter goes on to say the media presence his wife and children experienced at their home was intrusive, unrelenting and accelerated the "rush to judgement, before facts were fully obtained."

Arnold says reform needed

The most recent letter says that Arnold is part of the White Collar Coalition that's asking President Trump to reduce costly prison overcrowding by releasing all non-violent first-time offenders of white collar crimes if they've served half of their sentences.

"The compassionate and common sense solution would be the immediate release of such inmates, who would pay for their own housing and health care, with most returning to work, paying taxes and contributing to society," the letter says.

Arnold contends vaguely written criminal statutes benefit federal prosecutors in pressing charges of people without common understanding of those laws.

"The line between law abiding citizen and criminal can become too blurry to even detect its existence if it suits the agenda of a politicized prosecution," Arnold says. "While I am a big believer in accountability, I also believe the laws of our country have to remain centered around fair warning to protect the liberties of all Americans. After all, you have to know something is wrong to be held accountable for doing it."

Joe Russell to be released Feb. 21

Arnold faced sentences in the JailCigs case with his uncle John Vanderveer and Joe Russell, a former sheriff's chief of administration.

Russell is scheduled to be released Feb. 21 from a Residential Reentry Field Management field office in the Nashville area, records show.

Prison officials released Vanderveer Dec. 14.

Imprisoned sheriff wants out of jail:Convicted ex-Sheriff Robert Arnold asks Trump for pardon

Blaming Obama:Convicted sheriff Robert Arnold wants prison reform, blames President Obama for conviction

Arnold says he's guilty:Rutherford County sheriff pleads guilty to fraud, extortion

Reach Scott Broden at sbroden@dnj.com, 615-278-5158 and on Twitter @ScottBroden.