Ex-Boston City Councilor Tania Fernandes Anderson serving time in low-security Connecticut prison

Disgraced ex-Boston City Councilor Tania Fernandes Anderson is serving her monthlong jail sentence following her corruption conviction for pocketing a kickback at a low-security federal prison in Danbury Connecticut Fernandes Anderson is one of inmates behind bars at the Federal Correctional Institution Danbury a co-ed facility that includes an adjacent minimum safeguard satellite camp per the Federal Bureau of Prisons Of the total inmates are housed at the correctional facility while the remaining are at the camp The Bureau of Prisons does not differentiate between where Fernandes Anderson is housed at FCI Danbury Steve Bannon an ally of President Donald Trump served a four-month prison sentence at FCI Danbury following his conviction for contempt of Congress in connection with the January th assessment He was circulated in October Other notable former prisoners at FCI Danbury include Grammy award-winning singer and actress Lauryn Hill the late billionaire businesswoman Leona Helmsley reality star of the Real Housewives franchise Teresa Giudice and author Piper Kerman whose memoir inspired the hit Netflix series Orange is the New Black Danbury is a city in Fairfield County Connecticut located roughly miles northeast of New York City Fairfield is the wealthiest county in Connecticut Fernandes Anderson was convicted in the spring on federal corruption charges tied to a City Hall kickback scheme She informed to the Federal Bureau of Prisons last Friday but her placement at FCI Danbury was not revealed until Tuesday The ex-Roxbury-centric city councilor was sentenced to a month in prison three years of probation and was ordered to pay in restitution early last month Her release date is Nov according to the Bureau of Prisons Fernandes Anderson pleaded guilty on May to two of six charges one count of wire fraud and one count of theft concerning a federal venture that had been lodged against her in a December federal indictment She accepted a plea agreement with the U S Attorney s office in April with a recommendation from prosecutors that she be sentenced to a year and a day in prison and ordered to pay in restitution Four of the charges the ex-councilor was indicted on were dropped as part of the plea deal U S District Court Judge Indira Talwani opted to impose a lighter sentence citing sentencing guidelines that called for zero to six months based on Fernandes Anderson s lack of a criminal record Her attorney had sought only probation Fernandes Anderson was convicted on charges tied to claims made by the federal authorities that she gave one of her staff members a relative but not immediate family member a bonus on the condition that be kicked back to her The handoff was coordinated by text and took place in a City Hall bathroom in June prosecutors stated Related Articles Boston Zoning Commission chair to recuse himself from vote on contentious downtown skyscraper plan South End surge Arrests spiked by this summer amid Mass and Cass spillover Boston Police Boston businesses are being battered by shoplifting to feed Mass and Cass drug area Boston confronts opioid epidemic by crowdsourcing a values change Ex-Boston City Councilor Tania Fernandes Anderson heads to prison Friday after corruption conviction The federal indictment mentions that Fernandes Anderson may have been motivated in part by the personal financial difficulty she was facing at the time Fernandes Anderson was staring down an impending fine for a state ethics violation around that time period for hiring two immediate family members to her City Council staff giving them raises and in the episode of her sister a bonus Fernandes Anderson was paid a salary as a city councilor She defied calls to resign for more than six months after she was arrested and indicted by federal government last December The progressive Democrat resigned from the City Council on July two months after her conviction and a year and half into her second two-year term Fernandes Anderson was the first Muslim-American African immigrant and formerly undocumented person to be elected to the City Council This view shows the federal correctional institution Danbury FCI Danbury last year in Danbury Connecticut Photo byYuki Iwamura AFP via Getty Images File Steve Bannon is a former inmate at FCI Danbury AP Photo Yuki Iwamura File Teresa Giudice is a former inmate at FCI Danbury Photo by Evan Agostini Invision AP File