Joe Giudice 'Adjusting Very Well' in Prison, Lawyer Says – but Teresa and His Daughters Aren't Allowed to Visit Yet

Joe and Teresa's lawyer tells PEOPLE that Joe Giudice is taking his time in prison in stride

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Published on April 11, 2016 11:30 AM

Joe Guidice has been in prison for just over two weeks, but the Real Housewives of New Jersey star is already settling in, his family attorney James J. Leonard Jr. exclusively tells PEOPLE.

“I visited with Joe on Friday and he is doing as well as can be expected,” Leonard says of the 42-year-old. “I would say that he is adjusting very well. I know that he misses Teresa and their four daughters immensely, but Joe will get through this, just like Teresa did.”

Guidice turned himself into the Federal Correctional Institution at Fort Dix in late March to serve a 41-month sentence for fraud.

Leonard says that Joe’s mother Filomena and his sister Maria were leaving the visiting area as he arrived on Friday, and the family exchanged hugs and kisses.

“Teresa will be visiting with the girls as quickly as she is approved by the prison, which should be within the next week,” explains Leonard of Guidice’s wife, who finished her own prison sentence just before Christmas. Teresa’s approval is complicated due to the rules of her supervised release.

The attorney also slams any reports that Guidice arrived to prison under the influence, calling the rumors “100 percent pure fiction.”

“I was with Joe all morning up until the time he was taken into custody and I can tell you with absolute certainty that he was not drunk,” Leonard says of Guidice’s March 23 handover. Reports of Guidice being in a maximum security area are “more fiction.”

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“The staff and administration at Fort Dix have all been very pleasant to deal with, they are all extremely professional,” he notes.

Guidice has also already established some prison friendships, and met fellow Housewives star Apollo Nida, the estranged husband of Atlanta’s Phaedra Parks who is serving time for bank fraud and identity theft, on his first day, according to Leonard. (Nida is incarcerated at the same prison as Guidice.)

“Joe said Apollo was an absolute gentleman and helped him get acclimated and that they had a nice talk,” Leonard says.

Parks also reached out to Teresa, and previously told PEOPLE that she’d tell the New Jersey resident to “conduct yourself with class and dignity and realizing that everyone is on a journey, and her journey is her journey.”

She added, “Her truth is her truth, and you can’t let anyone distract you from the end goal – that’s raising beautiful, successful children.”