Federal Prisoner Pleads Guilty to Possessing a Weapon

Jackson, Miss. – Joseph Shaw, 35, a federal inmate, pled guilty today, before United States District Judge Henry T. Wingate, to possession of a weapon within a federal prison, announced U.S. Attorney Mike Hurst.

On June 21, 2017, during a routine search, federal correctional officers at the United States Penitentiary in Yazoo City, Mississippi, discovered Shaw in possession of a weapon. The weapon, a sharpened piece of plastic approximately 5.5 inches long, was confiscated.

Shaw will be sentenced in Jackson by Judge Wingate on May 21, 2018, at 9:30 a.m. He faces a maximum penalty of five additional years in prison and a $250,000 fine.

The case was investigated by the Federal Bureau of Prisons, Special Investigative Section. It is being prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Jennifer Case and Special Assistant United States Attorney Woelke Leithart.