A former corrections officer at FCI-Safford was sentenced to 18 months in prison after having a sexual relationship with an inmate and providing him with contraband items.
Staff Reports
TUCSON – A former corrections officer at Federal Correctional Institution – Safford, will be seeing what life is like on the other side of the bars.
Heather Alissa Neff, 38, of Lee’s Summit, Missouri, was sentenced last week by United States Judge Scott H. Rash to 18 months in prison, and 36 months of supervised release, according to a news release from the U.S. Attorney’s Office, District of Arizona. Neff pleaded guilty on Aug. 31 to accepting a bribe by a public official.
Neff previously worked at FCI-Safford as a corrections officer from 2016 through June 2019. FCI-Safford is a low-security federal correctional institution with a population of about 656 inmates.
According to the news release, Neff entered into an inappropriate sexual relationship with an incarcerated inmate and also received cash in exchange for providing special benefits to the inmate, including sexual contact and providing contraband items such as loose tobacco, nutritional supplements, hygiene items, and rum. Neff was accused of also assisting the inmate circumventing a security feature by taking mail from the inmate out of the prison and mailing it herself on his behalf.
Neff was also accused of accessing the BOP SENTRY system on behalf of the inmate and providing him with non-public information regarding the other inmates. One of the inmates Neff provided information about was later assaulted.
