Federal Correctional Institution in Danbury. File photo: Paul Desmarais
HARTFORD – A case manager at the Federal Correctional Institution in Danbury pleaded guilty Monday to participating in a scheme that collected cash from inmates in exchange for a recommendation for early release.
Kisha Perkins, 43, of Waterbury, now faces up to 15 years in prison for acceptance of a bribe by a public official.
Authorities said Perkins, who was described as the prison’s “unit counselor,” approached an employee at the prison in June 2013 about an opportunity to participate in a bribery scheme. Perkins told that employee that an inmate’s husband was willing to pay $20,000 in exchange for a recommendation that the prisoner be released early into a halfway house, police said.
Perkins was not authorized to give such recommendations at the time, authorities said. She was arrested March 14, 2014, following an investigation that included an employee working undercover.
U.S. Attorney Deirdre Daly described Perkins’ crime as “a corrosive bribery scheme.”
“There is no tolerance for corrupt employees within the ranks of the Bureau of Prisons,” Daly said in a news release Tuesday. “Prison officials, like this defendant, will be held accountable in federal court. “
Perkins also admitted to accepting a pair of shoes or a Louis Vuitton pocketbook in return for aiding in the commission of the scheme by counseling the employee regarding the bribe scheme and failing to report the bribe scheme to prison officials, according to the release.