Unemployment in Prisons

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Updated: 2/21 6:31 pm

HOUSTON (AP) - Officials acknowledge the state paid nearly $3.4 million in unemployment benefits to Texans behind bars over the last four years.


The Texas Workforce Commission says it identified about 1,700 cases of prison and jail inmates collecting benefits. But agency spokeswoman Lisa Givens says most fraud cases were caught early so the payments didn't continue for long.


Inmates aren't eligible for unemployment payments because those filing for benefits must be available for full-time work.


KHOU-TV in Houston reports that lists of eligible recipients are checked against names of state prison inmates. Givens says a program to check names of city, county and federal inmates has started.


Givens says the commission averted paying about $9.3 million to state prison inmates the past four years because of early fraud detection.

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shadow1 - 2/22/2013 11:46 AM
1 Vote
Charge them with theft and add another 10 years to their sentences.

charlie50 - 2/22/2013 6:57 AM
0 Votes
@Jacobez yo that kind of off color remark is not needed here .I believe black guy was the missing verb and pronoun you were looking for .who ever is checking up on these people that are in jail is not doing a very good job how are they even filing there claim .

Strings - 2/21/2013 8:09 PM
0 Votes
Richard Perry is an extremely important person. It is my belief that he is the resurrection of Ronald Reagan, because I saw him today on the Kelly and her Coon show when they rode the descent into the Everglades ride at Epcot. Everyone knows that Strahan has an unnatural fear of snakes and when the reptile with the face of Cheney leaped out of the water and landed in her lap and she screamed it was freaking amazing. I have heard that people in prison even find it hard to buy toothpaste because their family has decided to let them rot in the hoosegow, but my sister wrote to her brother - he murdered a small child because she spit at him in disgust, and he never bothered to write back, so she stopped sending him money for toothpaste, and instead of getting the death penalty, he died of heart disease because he did not take care of his gums. And yet, we worry incessantly about the meaning of Odessa and whether or not it had something to do with Doctor Zhivago. It has nothing to do with it. What matters is this, this one thing alone. Where is Terry Bretzke buried? You can search forever, but there will be no answer, because his limbs were, well, deformed. There is this novel, can't remember the name, a circus where they meant to breed children that had "gifts"

ABC123 - 2/21/2013 7:03 PM
2 Votes
$3.4 million? That's less than Rick Perry spends on hairspray every year.

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