http://finance.yahoo.com/news/Stimul....html?x=0&.v=2

This is freaking rediculous

WASHINGTON (AP) -- The federal government sent about 3,900 economic stimulus payments of $250 each this spring to people who were in no position to use the money to help stimulate the economy: prison inmates.

The checks were part of the massive economic recovery package approved by Congress and President Barack Obama in February. About 52 million Social Security recipients, railroad retirees and those receiving Supplemental Security Income were eligible for the one-time checks.

Prison inmates are generally ineligible for federal benefits. However, 2,200 of the inmates who received checks got to keep them because, under the law, they were eligible, said Mark Lassiter, a spokesman for the Social Security Administration. They were eligible because they weren't incarcerated in any one of the three months before the recovery package was enacted.

"The law specified that any beneficiary eligible for a Social Security benefit during one of those months was eligible for the recovery payment," Lassiter said.

The other 1,700 checks? That was a mistake.

Checks were sent to those inmates because government records didn't accurately show they were in prison, Lassiter said. He said most of those checks were returned by the prisons.

"We are currently reviewing each of those cases to determine whether or not the recovery payment was due," Social Security Commissioner Michael J. Astrue said in a statement issued Wednesday evening. "Where we determine payment was not due, we will take aggressive action to recover each of these erroneous payments."

The Boston Herald first reported that the checks were sent to inmates.

The inspector general for the Social Security Administration is performing an audit to make sure no checks went to ineligible recipients, spokesman George E. Penn said.

The audit, which had already been planned, will examine whether checks incorrectly went to inmates, dead people, fugitive felons or people living outside the U.S., Penn said.

The $787 billion economic recovery package included $2 million for the inspector general to oversee the provisions handled by the Social Security Administration. The audit is part of those efforts, Penn said. There is no timetable for its conclusion.

The federal government processed $13 billion in stimulus payments. About $425,000 was incorrectly sent to inmates.

8/27/2009 12:50:03 PM

Jail doesn't seem that bad. Free food, a free place to sleep, free tv and activities..... oh and now they're getting paid?? $425,000 dollars were incorrectly sent to inmates and they got to keep it! That is fucking rediculous.

8/27/2009 12:52:49 PM

reparations, chances are they were non-violent drug offenders

8/27/2009 12:54:54 PM

You got to figure that each inmate can buy about 50 packs of smokes with those checks and be prison rich.

8/27/2009 12:56:50 PM

I can't wait till the gov't runs healthcare, then we'll hear about inmates recieving people's prescription drugs

8/27/2009 1:04:31 PM

Quote :

"Jail doesn't seem that bad. Free food, a free place to sleep, free tv and activities..... oh and now they're getting paid?? $425,000 dollars were incorrectly sent to inmates and they got to keep it! That is fucking rediculous."

Please explain to me why this is ridiculous. In your original post, you simply posted the article and mentioned that it was ridiculous.

As to your second post, none of the benefits you listed were free. One could argue that incarceration in a prison, a punishment which comes with numerous negative consequences, a "record" that follows a man for life being the least among them, is definitely not "free" as you say. I would imagine that almost all of the inmates would gladly pay for their food, sleep, television, and activities if they didn't have to worry about a record or, at the worst, being raped and killed by a gang while in prison.

If your issue is with the eligibility, than that's a whole different matter. Do you feel that persons guilty of nonviolent offenses, who may be serving rather short sentences, are not entitled to the same benefits as other citizens?

8/27/2009 1:10:40 PM

they're in prison for a reason. tough shit

8/27/2009 1:12:36 PM

Quote :

"they're in prison for a reason. tough shit"

I'm not sure I understand what you're getting at. Do you disagree with certain nonviolent offenders being recipients of the federal stimulus package?

8/27/2009 1:16:04 PM

^All it has done for him is to reaffirm his belief that the government shouldnt be involved in anything. He hasn't thought about it any more deeply than that.

8/27/2009 1:23:48 PM

Holy shit, checks were mistakenly sent to 1700 of the 2 million people in prision. That's an error rate of almost .1% !!!!

8/27/2009 2:08:38 PM

didnt read the thread, but if they paid taxes why wouldn't they get rebates?

8/27/2009 2:13:02 PM

Even if someone is in prison for a nonviolent offense they aren't paying for anything monitarily and are still making money. They are making money in prison! I don't understand how anyone can not have issues with that?

8/27/2009 6:56:39 PM

Quote :

"As to your second post, none of the benefits you listed were free. One could argue that incarceration in a prison, a punishment which comes with numerous negative consequences, a "record" that follows a man for life being the least among them, is definitely not "free" as you say. I would imagine that almost all of the inmates would gladly pay for their food, sleep, television, and activities if they didn't have to worry about a record or, at the worst, being raped and killed by a gang while in prison. "

There are already those who choose to go to prison rather than try to get jobs and be succesful citizens. They choose prison b/c for them the real world is harder than living in the penal system. And now they're recieving stimulus checks. I do have a problem with this and don't really understand why you don't.

8/27/2009 7:00:13 PM

Of 111,000,000 households in America, 1700 people erroneously receive $250... WOW HOW TERRIBLE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

8/27/2009 7:16:31 PM

So are we talking about hardened i went out killed some mother fucker or Pee Wee Herman child molesters

or the

i'm in jail for 8 months b.c i got caught with 3 oz of pot or i was stupid and kidnapped my boss after getting fired but now serving 2 years type of criminals?

8/27/2009 7:16:35 PM

Quote :

"Of 111,000,000 households in America, 1700 people erroneously receive $250... WOW HOW TERRIBLE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! "

Yep, and one of those checks was from me. One was from you. I don't want my tax dollars given to a fucking prisoner. He's in jail for a reason. It's not supposed to be profitable.

It's kind of like me writing a check, going down to the jail and handing it to bubba in cell block D and saying here's $250 bucks bud, hope it helps.

8/27/2009 7:29:30 PM

^ how do you propose designing a system that's 100% accurate that has to manage 300,000,000 people? Clearly no one intended for those people to get the money.

Quote :

"The other 1,700 checks? That was a mistake. Checks were sent to those inmates because government records didn't accurately show they were in prison, Lassiter said. He said most of those checks were returned by the prisons. "We are currently reviewing each of those cases to determine whether or not the recovery payment was due," Social Security Commissioner Michael J. Astrue said in a statement issued Wednesday evening. Where we determine payment was not due, we will take aggressive action to recover each of these erroneous payments." "

All things considered, it seems like things worked out pretty well in this situation.

8/27/2009 7:36:34 PM

Quote :

"i was stupid and kidnapped my boss after getting fired"

so wait...KIDNAPPING SOMEONE is on par with having some weed?

8/27/2009 7:51:54 PM

Quote :

"There are already those who choose to go to prison rather than try to get jobs and be succesful citizens. They choose prison b/c for them the real world is harder than living in the penal system. And now they're recieving stimulus checks. I do have a problem with this and don't really understand why you don't."

If you honestly believe that this is a widespread problem, that there are numerous people who believe that going to prison is easier than living outside of prison, then I don't think there's any hope left for you, my friend.

8/27/2009 8:28:06 PM

I'm trying to get upset about this, but I just can't.

1) It was an accident. 'It was just an accident' doesn't excuse everything, but this is pretty minor.

2) Out of 52 million checks, 1700 were sent to wrong people.

1,700 / 52,000,000 * 100 = 0.0032 %

That's 1 in 30,500. Not a bad record.

3) The money spent investigating and correct this error will probably cost more than was accidently sent.

[Edited on August 27, 2009 at 9:30 PM. Reason : ]

8/27/2009 9:30:14 PM

$425K....big fucking deal.

8/27/2009 9:54:57 PM

Quote :

"Holy shit, checks were mistakenly sent to 1700 of the 2 million people in prision. That's an error rate of almost .1% !!!!"

its not the fact that they were mistakenly sent to law abiding/tax paying citizens, they were sent to fucking correctional facilities

8/27/2009 9:57:48 PM

Quote :

"its not the fact that they were mistakenly sent to law abiding/tax paying citizens, they were sent to fucking correctional facilities"

If I understand you correctly, you don't have a problem with them being sent to inmates, you simply have a problem with the location they were sent to? Would you have preferred that they were sent to another location, such as a relative of the inmate, who could then deliver them in person?

8/27/2009 10:02:43 PM

stimulus checks were sent to prison, a govt controlled establishment, that is inexcusable .. is that easier

8/27/2009 10:08:58 PM

Would you be upset with a U.S. soldier having his stimulus cheque sent to Fort Bragg?

8/27/2009 11:08:59 PM

is fort bragg a prison?

8/27/2009 11:30:50 PM

He's just playing a game with you because of the obtuse language you're using in making your point.

You seem to be saying you have an issue with the checks being sent to a prison/government controlled establishment, rather than to the inmates themselves, which is probably what you mean.

8/28/2009 12:34:21 AM

im aware

8/28/2009 12:45:53 AM

Sure, now that I told you.

8/28/2009 12:49:33 AM

Wow. Its amazing how you guys completely dismiss the point of the thread and then go on to justify completely illogical behavior by playing a numbers game. Just because its small-scale dosent make it right.

I wish a government official would give me $1,000,000, that'll be 1 in 111,000,000 households that benefit according to moron.....and its completely justified due to the shear volume of people in the country! Gimme a break.....

8/28/2009 8:20:24 AM

Quote :

" so wait...KIDNAPPING SOMEONE is on par with having some weed? "

No but i the magnitude of crimes this ranks in the sub 10 year sentences.

Quote :

"I don't want my tax dollars given to a fucking prisoner. He's in jail for a reason. It's not supposed to be profitable. "

Are you that fucking short signted. I love how people in here devour statistics without thinking it all out. Technically one of these
horrible prisoners could be a tax-payer perfectly deserving of their refund but had to spend 5 nights in the slammer for some minor shit.

Perhaps we should make a new law where anyone who pleads guilty of any type of misdeamanor or felony forfeits their income tax refund. Even
if they work Jan thru Nov before serving time.

While i do agree this has allowed some prisoners to undeservingly get free money but in the grand scheme of things I think $250 is pennies
in the pond spent on these dipshits in jail.

Perhaps in the name of saving tax-payer money we should be in arms about some frivalous waste spent by our congressman on Mercedes-Benz's and shit.

8/28/2009 8:29:39 AM

I would think that conservatives would be more concerned about the costs associated with incarcerating the millions of nonviolent drug offenders for overly harsh sentences. The stimulus check is a pittance in comparison.

Of course, if they believe that the offenders are "scum who deserve to be in jail," then I suppose there's no reasoning with them.

8/28/2009 8:34:15 AM

Quote :

"stimulus checks were sent to prison, a govt controlled establishment, that is inexcusable .. is that easier"

So... the computer that printed the addresses from the database should've had more common sense?

8/28/2009 8:38:53 AM

^Ummm. I think hes arguing that the guy who set the query for the database search of who qualified to begin with should've had more commonsense.

Quote :

"I would think that conservatives would be more concerned about the costs associated with incarcerating the millions of nonviolent drug offenders for overly harsh sentences. The stimulus check is a pittance in comparison."

Yes. Only conservatives are concerned that tax payer money that was supposed to stimulate the economy was given to inmates

Clearly, conservatives are the only ones that support incarcerating the millions of nonviolent drug offenders for overly harsh sentences. Why dont you tell us Obama's stance on the issue? He must be a conservative!

[Edited on August 28, 2009 at 10:40 AM. Reason : .]

8/28/2009 10:33:01 AM

Quote :

"Of course, if they believe that the offenders are "scum who deserve to be in jail," then I suppose there's no reasoning with them."

this isnt a thread about the ethics of incarceration

8/28/2009 10:41:45 AM

Quote :

"Wow. Its amazing how you guys completely dismiss the point of the thread and then go on to justify completely illogical behavior by playing a numbers game. Just because its small-scale dosent make it right. I wish a government official would give me $1,000,000, that'll be 1 in 111,000,000 households that benefit according to moron.....and its completely justified due to the shear volume of people in the country! Gimme a break..... "

I'm not saying it's justified, they are taking the money back, do you realize this?

I'm saying it's dumb to get mad about this, like you apparently are, when it's practically an unavoidable mistake when working on this scale. Find the mistake, correct it, and move on. No irrational emotions needed.

8/28/2009 10:45:19 AM

When I read comments like "they're in prison for a reason. tough shit" and "fucking correctional facilities," it gives me the feeling that this is more about the ethics of incarceration. You appeared at the start to be dismissing any of the inmates, stating that they must have deserved their punishment and therefore shouldn't be able to benefit at all from the stimulus package.

8/28/2009 10:46:26 AM

Who's this Tarpon guy? I haven't seen him before. Between aaron, 1337, Fail Boat, EarthDogg, and their ilk, we have enough moon bats around here. But I'll bite...

Quote :

"They were eligible because they weren't incarcerated in any one of the three months before the recovery package was enacted."

Quote :

"Yep, and one of those checks was from me."

Assuming the Law of Averages holds true, you lost nothing. People that were in prison during the time that the law was enacted, but released before the checks were sent did NOT get a check. So taxpayers did not pay extra, the money just shifted between two groups (inmates leaving prison vs inmates entering prison). The ~1700 ppl leaving jail are the real ones that got screwed. How noble of you to fight for their cause, though .

---

And to shoot down the actual article...

Quote :

"The federal government sent about 3,900 economic stimulus payments of $250 each this spring to people who were in no position to use the money to help stimulate the economy: prison inmates."

Because clearly none of these inmates have wives or children that they provide for and could spend the money in the inmates absense.

8/28/2009 11:31:05 AM

This is not even worth arguing over. Fucking liberals...........

8/28/2009 11:57:34 AM

You realize not everyone who said this thread is fucking stupid is a liberal, right?

Or, are you one of "those people" who thinks diversity of opinion is one of two choices and that everyone who disagrees with you is a flaming liberal or racist conservative?

8/28/2009 12:06:39 PM

Nope, never said anything about rights of opinion. It's just obvious that everyone in this thread feels completely one way or another and are not going to change others points of views, so fuck it. No use in beating a dead horse.

8/28/2009 12:19:33 PM

Quote :

"..........."

implies you had more to say.

8/28/2009 12:26:55 PM

Quote :

"This is not even worth arguing over. Fucking liberals..........."

Ah, nothing like seeing a moonbat raise the white flag in their own thread. Good times.

8/28/2009 1:19:15 PM

NBD here. It's not like they got the money and then were told, "Aw shucks, just keep it". As long as they take it back, I'm satisfied. Mistakes happen, unfortunately, because .gov can't do shit right.

8/31/2009 3:46:23 PM

Quote :

"Mistakes happen, unfortunately, because .gov can't do shit right."

It's not just government, it's people too.

http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/9091318/Bank_loses_tapes_with_data_on_4.5M_clients

Corporations screw up constantly. It's one of the reasons our lawyers get paid so much $$$.

8/31/2009 4:05:18 PM

Quote :

"Ah, nothing like seeing a moonbat raise the white flag in their own thread. Good times. "

Um... moonbat is a term used to describe extreme liberals. I am a pretty conservative guy.

8/31/2009 10:01:34 PM