Federal prosecutors are seeking a four-year prison sentence for former Rep. Jesse L. Jackson Jr., D-Ill., but it could be years before he begins serving his prison term.

According to channel 5 NBC Chicago, prosecutors filed a sentencing memo today asking District Judge Amy Berman Jackson of the District Court for the District of Columbia to sentence the Illinois Democrat to four years in prison and to pay $750,000 in restitution to his campaign coffers, in addition to a forfeiture money judgment of the same amount.

Prosecutors recommended that Jackson’s wife, former Chicago Alderman Sandi Jackson, be sentenced to 18 months in prison for filing false joint federal income tax returns. They recommended she pay restitution of about $168,500.

The former congressman’s prison term could be delayed, though, because prosecutors recommended staggering the Jacksons’ prison terms, for the sake of their children, and recommended that Sandi Jackson begin serving her term first.