Even as the COVID-19 pandemic swept through America’s prisons and jails, the federal government further punished inmates by denying them access to the economic stimulus budget – cash that inmates and their families desperately need.
Fortunately, a ruling in the Federal District of California intervened, which ruled last week that the Internal Revenue Service will have to send stimulus bills of up to $1,200 to 1. 5 million to 2 million state and federal inmates who are eligible for relief.
For other incarcerated people who have a task behind bars paying a few cents an hour, high-risk tasks that many of them were forced to perform for the pandemic, this money can be used as a lifeguard. affected through COVID-19. They are eligible for stimulus cash and that’s yours.
The Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act, or CARES Act, was designed to help Americans who suffer while their livelihoods were devastated by the public fitness crisis. The $2. 2 trillion coronavirus rescue program has not prevented prisons or prisoners from receiving help.
People in criminals want money, too. During a pandemic, there is even more demand for soap and more hygiene products, which come with maximum value from the Commissioner.
But stimulus cash can also help outsiders in monetary difficulties. Inmates’ relatives send cash to inmates in exchange for food and other essential goods. They can also spend huge amounts of cash on phone calls to stay in touch.
As the stimulus budget began to reach Americans, The IRS paid $100 million to nearly 85,000 inmates, according to a June 30 report through the Treasury Inspector General for tax administration. Without explanation, the Trump administration suspended bills and demanded that prisons already receive checks the spouses of detainees who deserve the return of any stimulus budget component for their relatives Imprisoned.
The resolve to arrest and remove inmates and their families, which by their right is not simply punitive, but vengeful.
An action of elegance on behalf of the incarcerated persons led to the decision of Judge Phyllis Hamilton on 1 October 4 that prisoners are entitled to stimulus funds. Hamilton gave the prisoners until November 4 to claim their money.
“Incarcerated people and their families are basically low-income and come disproportionately from minority communities that have suffered long-term stories of discrimination through government authorities,” the original complaint says. “These communities are among the hardest hit by the economic downturn caused by COVID-19. “
Yaman Salahi, spouse of Lieff Cabraser Heimann
“If you just take a look at the number of other people who are imprisoned in this country as a result of mass incarceration in recent decades, we have more than 2 million other people in criminal status across the United States,” Salahi told me this week. “This provides abundant financial aid to these Americans and their families. “
However, detainees have already encountered obstacles as they seek to navigate the stimulus application process.
Some do not have access to computers to record the required documents. Hamilton was transparent in his resolution that detainees be allowed to obtain bureaucracy and return before the deadline. He went one step further by requiring the IRS to send the bureaucracy and legal recommendation. to all criminals in the United States who explain the rights of prisoners and the commands that criminal administrators must follow.
“We have received reports across the country about prison officials or criminal directors blocking access to this bureaucracy,” Salahi said. “Then, when others send copies to their (imprisoned) circle of family members, they do not allow them to be handed over to the user in their custody, and in some of the heinous cases we have heard of, they are threatened with sanctions such as solitary confinement, field, or any other sanction for having that bureaucracy on their property or for seeking to fill them and deliver them to the IRS.
Of course, many others will argue that anyone who is convicted of a crime and is serving a sentence, especially violent offenders, does not deserve a government check, but it is a short-sighted emotional argument.
Many inmates have children, spouses, or relatives who are aging and want to pay rent or buy food, and for soon-to-be-released inmates, the stimulus budget will give them the opportunity for a fresh start.
“The budget would be a blessing,” said Kelsey Kauffman, advocate for the rights of inmates and emeritus director of the Indiana Women’s Prison higher education program. “Most of them face absurd degrees of debt imposed on them through lawmakers and reckless courts. month in legal fees, library fees, medications, anger management, child support, etc.
“If they don’t make a payment, they go back to prison,” Kauffman said. “No, $1,200 would possibly not cover many months, however, they can give them a break when they first arrive at the house and/or just a help. they get their driver’s license back and going from work. “
The criminal is meant to inspire rehabilitation. It is unacceptable to treat detainees, or their families with liquidity problems, as if they were invisible and not deserved. Their lives have been affected, and taken away, through the pandemic. It’s time to help them get their money.
National columnist Suzette Hackney is a member of usa TODAY’s Editorial Board. Contact her on shackney@usatoday. com or on Twitter: @suzyscribe
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