In a disturbing decision by a federal judge, Illinois inmates and prisoners from other areas will now be given COVID relief money regardless of what their convictions are.
Inmates Given Stimulus Money
The prisoners will be granted $1,200 stimulus checks no matter their offenses. Prisons are now even helping inmates receive the money by providing them the necessary forms.
FOX 2 spoke via Zoom with Yaman Salahi, the attorney who won the ruling.
“Certainly, Congress had the ability to render people ineligible if they wanted to or thought it was important, but they didn’t decide to do that,” he said.
In May the IRS posted on its website ‘Frequently Asked Questions…’
Question 15: “Does someone who is incarcerated qualify for the payment?”
The IRS responded: “No. A payment made to someone who is incarcerated should be returned to the IRS.”
Lawyer Fights the IRS
Salahi took the IRS to task on the subject.
“We decided to take a closer look at the law that congress passed and realized there was nothing in there that supported the IRS’s decision and so we felt very strongly was what the IRS had done was not lawful and something that had to be corrected,” Salahi said.
A federal judge agreed, ruling this month, “…excluding incarcerated individuals from receiving an economic impact payment solely on the basis of their incarcerated status is arbitrary and capricious.”
The Illinois Department of Corrections issued this statement:
The required documentation has been distributed to all men and women in IDOC custody. Thanks to the assistance of Northwestern University, a team of volunteers is ensuring the applications are postmarked by the due date.
The stimulus checks will be added to the offender’s account. Like any funds in an offender’s trust, they will be disbursed to the offender upon release. If a stimulus check has been received after an offender is released, IDOC staff will contact the offender using the forwarding address supplied by the offender upon release.
Murderers and Rapists Given Funds
“The whole point of the aid package was to help people who were affected by COVID-19. Well, when somebody ends up in prison, their life doesn’t end,” Salahi said. “They continue having family members on the outside. They continue having friends on the outside, they have children on the outside. Those people are paying the costs of incarceration, thousands of dollars a year.”
With COVID, top Democrat politicians have released hardened criminals onto the streets. Well, now the government is issuing money to murders and rapists while they’re incarcerated. Even if inmates are serving a life sentence, they will still receive money.
