Back in December of 2021, the world breathed a sigh of relief as Josh Duggar was sentenced to 12 and a half years in prison on child pornography charges.

Many had hoped that Josh would receive a longer sentence, but there was comfort in knowing that the lifelong sexual predator would not be able to claim any new victims for the foreseeable future.

Unfortunately, even sex offenders rarely serve the entirety of their sentences.

And many have been upset by the news that Josh almost certainly will not serve his full 151 months behind bars.

Yes, as we reported earlier this week, Josh’s tentative release date has been set.

And sadly, it’s not 12 and a half years away,

The Federal Bureau of Prisons has scheduled Josh’s release for August 12, 2032.

Prisoners who exhibit good behavior typically only serve 85 percent of their sentences.

And since Josh is technically a first-time offender, if he stays out of trouble then he’ll probably only serve about 10 years behind bars.

We say “technically” because Josh’s previous crimes are well documented — he just never served time for them.

While still in his teens, Josh molested five young girls, four of whom were his sisters.

His parents helped him to conceal his crimes and evade prosecution, but they were eventually pressured by their neighbors to file a police report.

Because of that documentation, prosecutors in Josh’s child pornography trial were permitted to raise the issue of Josh’s previous sex crimes, even though he was never arrested or charged.

They mentioned Josh’s predatory past again during his sentencing hearing, requesting 20 years, in part due to his “prior sexual exploitation of multiple minors.”

Prosecutors also aked the judge to consider “the extraordinary efforts Duggar took to obtain and view child sexual abuse materials (CSAM), the nature of the CSAM he obtained and viewed, his efforts to conceal his criminal conduct and his refusal to take accountability for or acknowledge any of his criminal conduct.”

Despite all of those considerations, the judge handed down a relatively lenient sentence of 151 months.

Observers have noted that Josh’s wife and parents wrote letters to the judge requesting leniency.

And those letters made it clear that they’ve maintained their belief in his innocence despite his decades of predatory behavior.

That means that when he’s eventually released, Josh will continue to be surrounded by delusional enablers

Fortunately, Josh will be forced to undergo 20 months of supervised release once he’s let out of prison.

So even though he might be a free man as early as 2032, Josh won’t be allowed to spend time unsupervised time with children until the 2050s.

Now, that might sound like it’s a very long way off.

But that’s still too soon for most people’s taste.

With any luck, Josh will come up against a succession of unsympathetic parole boards who will ensure that he’ll be forced to see his sentence through to its completion.

Even that seems like a woefully inadequate punishment, given all the suffering that Josh has cause.

Josh Duggar: Is He Getting Out of Prison Sooner Than Expected? was originally published on The Hollywood Gossip .