According to The Los Angeles Times, California prison inmates, including murderers on death row like Scott Peterson, have received $140 million in unemployment benefits while a huge backlog of legitimate claims remain unprocessed. Senator Jim Nielsen (R-Tehama), former Chair of the Board of Prison Terms, issued the following statement:
“Unemployment benefits are for working Californians who lost their jobs, not convicted felons currently incarcerated in prisons.
“Countless Californians continue to wait for their unemployment benefits. They worked hard and lost their jobs through no fault of their own. They are desperately waiting for their debit cards to pay for rent and other bills, while prisoners are paid.
“The irony that EDD places verification measures that has prevented Californians from receiving their unemployment, yet qualifies death row inmates is shameful.
“This exemplifies how dysfunctional California government has become.
“This is not difficult - the Governor must direct his EDD to immediately stop payments to all convicted felons who, by the way, are residents of California's state prisons.
“A task force, as proposed by the Governor, is simply a dodge and a waste of time for rectifying this colossal failure of the Newsom administration.
“Unfortunately, in Governor Newsom’s California, there are few solutions for massive inmate unemployment fraud other than prevention. Inmates know that they are unlikely to spend even one more day in prison for filing fraudulent claims. Criminals understand that theft crimes are no longer vigorously prosecuted in California, and even conviction will rarely lead to incarceration.”
# # #
Scams led California to send COVID jobless benefits to Scott Peterson, death row inmates
By Anita Chabria, Patrick McGreevy, Richard Winton
Los Angeles times
“So far, investigations have uncovered more than $400,000 in state benefits paid to death row inmates, and more than $140 million to other incarcerated people in California’s 38 prisons, according to Sacramento County Dist. Atty. Anne Marie Schubert, who helped organize and lead a task force that uncovered the alleged dupery. In total, payments to those ineligible due to incarceration in prisons and jails could total nearly $1 billion, the prosecutors claim.”
To read the article in its entirety, please click here.
