California Judge Rules Prison Inmates MUST Receive $1,200 Stimulus Payment
Should people in prison receive the $1,200 coronavirus stimulus payment? Wasn’t the idea behind the program to help working Americans overcome job shutdowns and layoffs? How would people in prison, who are housed, fed, and often get free education and vocational training, qualify?
According to Judge Phyllis J. Hamilton of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California, the government cannot withhold coronavirus stimulus checks for felons just because they are behind bars.
What may sound outrageously counterintuitive to law-abiding working people, seemed to make good sense on a strictly legal level. The attorneys who argued on behalf of inmates convinced her that:
The CARES legislation that opened the floodgates of federal funds made no mention of incarcerated people. The IRS originally determined that prisoners were eligible and mailed out 85,000 checks valued at $100 million before they reversed course and recalled the checks. The lawyers further argued that prisoners and their families need the money just like everyone else — and even more so. Incarcerated felons and their families on the outside are among the most hurting economically, especially during the pandemic. People in jail, they claim had less than $20,000 in median income before running afoul of the law. That is compared to over $41,000 for everyone else.
Judge Hamilton, a Clinton 1990 appointee, ruled in favor of the prisoners. The judge also ordered the IRS to correct its website. The IRS inserted a new answer to the question, “Does someone who is incarcerated qualify for the payment?” Their revised answer is that in response to the lawsuit, the IRS cannot withhold the money to people who “meet the standard requirements.”
The court has ordered the IRS to mail notices to prisoners everywhere and inform them they are eligible. The government is appealing those decisions. In the meantime, the clock is running out for prisoners (and everyone else) to file simplified paper tax returns by October 30 (November 21 for those who didn’t file in previous years).
Poster Comment:
Utter insanity.