BECKLEY, W.Va. -- A federal inmate in West Virginia has been sentenced to a year and a half in prison for possessing a weapon.

Federal prosecutors said Wednesday that 43-year-old Damon Ripley was sentenced in federal court in Beckley.

Ripley admitted to having a shank, or homemade knife, in March at the Federal Correctional Institution in Beckley. Federal prosecutors say Ripley admitted that a sharpened piece of metal had a pillowcase wrapped around one end to form a handle, and that he planned to use it as a weapon.