California Paid $400 Million to Incarcerated Criminals

Thank you my friend MAJ Dale E. Wilson, Ph.D. for posting the unsurprising news that California paid incarcerated inmates $400 million largely in unemployment insurance. Their unemployment insurance system is so backlogged that many repeated attempts to get funding for incarcerated prisoners - including some on death row.

California paid $400 million in jobless benefits to inmates
By Adam Beam | The Associated PressCalifornia sent about $400 million in fraudulent unemployment benefit payments to state prisoners, a state official said Tuesday, nearly triple the amount disclosed last week and a number that could grow as a criminal investigation continues. Nine county district attorneys and a federal prosecutor are investigating unemployment fraud involving payments from the California Employment Development Department, which was under intense pressure to quickly process millions of claims as the economic impact from the coronavirus intensified last spring. Criminals took advantage by submitting numerous fraudulent claims, many of which were approved by the state. Prosecutors discovered the fraud included inmates working with people outside the prisons and last week estimated $140 million was paid to about 20, 000 prisoners between March and August. But Crystal Page, spokeswoman for the California Labor and Workforce Development Agency that oversees the unemployment office, said a review of records now pegs the figure at about $400 million. The new number includes not just the base benefits of $450 per week but also additional aid Congress approved during the pandemic — $600 per week for four months plus $300 a week for six weeks after that. In all, records show benefit claims were submitted in the names of 31, 000 inmates. About 20, 800 inmates were paid and another $80 million in claims involving the other prisoners were not, according to Page. The new figure came after comparing jobless claims data with the Social Security numbers of state prison inmates. That part of the investigation was slowed — to the great frustration of prosecutors — because of a state law that forbids the prison system from giving out inmates’ numbers. State officials got around that law by convincing the Office of the Inspector General at the U. S. Department of Labor to issue a subpoena for the information in late September, according to Dana Simas, press secretary for the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation. The subpoena is only a temporary solution because it covers just records between March 1 and Oct. 30. State officials say they are working on a more permanent fix. California OK’d benefits for at least 133 inmates on death row, including some of the state’s most notorious serial killers. Prosecutors said someone filed a claim in the name of Scott Peterson, who was convicted and sentenced to death for the murder of his pregnant wife following a trial that gripped the nation. It’s unclear how many inmates actually got the money. It’s possible criminals applied for the benefits by stealing inmates’ identities. Peterson, whose death sentence was recently overturned by the California Supreme Court, did not apply or receive any unemployment benefits, according to his attorney Pat Harris.
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I can certainly understand why taxes are so high in California, and does anyone really expect that the Liberal Newsome would except any responsibility, I left California for three reasons in the year 2000, "TAXES", "TAXES", and 'ILLEGAL IMMIGRATION".

No wonder California has no money, and the governor not wanting to talk about it? How crooked of a system do they need out there MAJ Dale E. Wilson, Ph.D.