Federal Inmate Sentenced To Additional 15 Months In Prison For Possessing Weapon

            Concord, N.H.—Emily Gray Rice, United States Attorney for the District of New Hampshire, announced that Parrish Powell, 27, previously of Mount Vernon, New York, was sentenced for possessing a weapon at a federal correctional institution in July 2015.  United States District Judge Landya B. McCafferty imposed a sentence of 15 months’ imprisonment and a mandatory $100 special assessment.

            According to the indictment, statements made in court, and other public records in the case, in 2014 Powell was convicted in the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York for the illegal possession of a firearm by a convicted felon.  He was sentenced to 37 months’ imprisonment and 2 years of supervised release on that charge.  The Federal Bureau of Prisons assigned Powell to the federal correctional institute in Berlin, New Hampshire (“FCI Berlin”).   On July 17, 2015, Powell was subject to a routine search by an FCI Berlin correctional officer.   The officer discovered in Powell’s boot a knife or “shiv” fashioned out a yellow plastic eating utensil, sharpened to a point at one end, with black electrical tape wrapped around the other end, forming a makeshift handle.  A federal indictment charging Powell with possessing a weapon while an inmate at a federal prison, in violation of Title 18, United States Code, Sections 1791(a)(2) and (d)(1)(B), was returned on December 16, 2015, and Powell pleaded guilty on February 29, 2016.

            By statute, Powell’s new sentence of 15 months must run consecutive to his existing sentence on the 2014 charges in New York. He will be subject to a period of 2 years supervised release upon release from prison as a result of the sentence imposed in 2014. 

            The case was investigated by the Federal Bureau of Prisons with assistance from the Federal Bureau of Investigation, and is being prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Charles L. Rombeau.

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