ATLANTA — The lawyer for rapper T.I. said Friday that he's working to have the Grammy winner returned to a halfway house after a transportation flap left him locked up again in a federal penitentiary.

The Federal Bureau of Prisons website Friday shows that the rapper is at the Atlanta penitentiary with a release date of Sept. 29. He had checked into a halfway house in Atlanta this week after serving months in an Arkansas prison.

The 30-year-old rapper, whose real name is Clifford Harris, made the 375-mile trip to Atlanta in a gleaming motor coach on Wednesday. The transportation arrangements appear to be the reason he's back behind bars, his lawyer said.

"The Federal Bureau of Prisons (BOP) appears to have an issue with the circumstances surrounding TI's transportation from Arkansas to Atlanta," T.I.'s attorney, Steve Sadow, said Friday.
Sadow said they haven't received formal notice from prison officials explaining what he's accused of doing wrong.

Sadow said Friday there was never any intent to mislead or misstate T.I.'s method of transportation, and he hopes the issue can be cleared up quickly so T.I. can return to the halfway house.

"T.I. got on a private bus in the prison's parking area in full view of BOP employees. Indeed, he was actually escorted to the bus by a prison guard," Sadow said.

Federal Bureau of Prisons spokesman Chris Burke said Friday he couldn't discuss why the rapper was transferred back to a prison.

T.I. had initially served about seven months at the prison in 2009 after he was arrested for trying to buy unregistered guns and silencers from undercover federal agents. He was on probation after he was released and ordered not to commit another crime or to illegally possess any controlled substances.

He was arrested again in September 2010 in Los Angeles on drug charges after authorities said he was found with four ecstasy pills. He was sentenced in October to 11 months in prison for that violation, and had been set for release at the end of September but was let go early.

First Published September 2, 2011, 10:53 p.m.