Foxy Brown, who is currently serving a year-long stretch in prison for assault, has asked a New York judge if she can be released early to receive treatment for an ear condition she claims could permanently affect her hearing.

"I ask you to please take into consideration that my health is in jeopardy," Brown said in a four-page handwritten appeal letter to Judge Melissa Jackson filed late yesterday (January 15) at New York State Supreme Court.

"Yes, I’ve made some bad choices and stupid mistakes. But please understand that sitting in a prison with murderers and criminals is not rehabilitating or what I need to deal with my inner issues."

Brown’s lawyer, Laura Dilimetin, argued that Brown, real name Inga Marchand, who has already had surgery to put an electronic device in her right ear, should not be incarcerated in her current condition. "If her hearing is damaged any further, it will affect the way she hears and it will affect the way she sings," Dilimetin argued. "It will have dire consequences on her ability to maintain her profession and livelihood."

The 29-year-old was sentenced to three years probation in October 2006 after assaulting two nail salon employees over a $20 manicure at a Manhattan nail salon. In September last year, Judge Jackson ruled that Brown was not taking her probation seriously and sentenced the rapper to a year in prison.

A month later Brown was placed in isolation in jail for 76 days after getting into a shoving match with another inmate and refusing to do a drug test. She was moved out of solitary confinement after 40 days.