(Newser) – Singer Lauryn Hill has been sentenced to three months in prison and three months in home confinement after pleading guilty to failing to pay taxes on almost $1 million in earnings. Hill told the judge that she had intended to pay the taxes ... eventually, but that she "needed to be able to earn so I could pay my taxes, without compromising the health and welfare of my children, and I was being denied that," the AP reports.

Additionally, TMZ reports, she told the court her situation was akin to slavery: "I was put into a system I didn't know the nature of. ... I'm a child of former slaves. I got into an economic paradigm and had that imposed on me," Hill said. "I sold 50 million units ... now I'm up here paying a tax debt. If that's not likened to slavery, I don't know what is."