[ad_1]
Part of the problem, the task force wrote, was that, unlike at least 35 other states, California lacks the technology to cross-check its prisoner lists and UI claimant lists.
About two weeks ago, however, the group received a cross-check from the US Department of Labor between federal unemployment insurance claims data and a list of California prison inmates that federal officials had subpoenaed from there. ‘State.
The more than 35,000 payments sent on behalf of state prisoners alone, they found, totaled more than $ 140 million between March and August, with nearly half a million dollars disbursed on behalf of 133 convicts. to death. Among the most important: a claim for $ 19,676 paid on behalf of a death row inmate and another for $ 48,600 on behalf of another criminal.
The cross-checking did not include the state’s 58 county jails, state hospitals where sexually violent predators are held, and mentally disordered inmates or other facilities where people are held civilly.
However, Ms Schubert said in an interview, the task force’s investigation revealed fraudulent claims filed under the names and Social Security numbers of inmates at all levels of the correctional system, including most prisons, all the more than 30 prisons in the state. and thousands of federal prisoners.
“The volume of frauds as well as the types of detainees involved is staggering,” the task force wrote to Newsom, adding that many claims filed under the names of detainees were paid to beneficiaries in other states.
“This needs to be stopped,” Ms. Schubert said. “We are paying hundreds of millions of dollars on behalf of serial killers, rapists and child molesters. We have to turn off the tap. “
Ben Casselman contributed reporting from New York.
[ad_2]
Source link