Did Stimulus Checks Go to Inmates at Stateville?
Did stimulus money go to inmates at Stateville? WJOL has reached out and received clarification on this question after a source at the Stateville Correctional Center stated that they had been asked to process checks written out to inmates at the prison. Congressman Dan Lipinski’s office has told WJOL that earlier this month a federal judge ruled in the case of Scholl v. Mnuchin that prisoners were entitled to payments if they were considered eligible under the language of the CARES Act. There is no language in that bill which specifically denied prisoners from receiving the one time $1,200 payment. Inmates were initially denied the checks when they were first issued but a federal lawsuit quickly followed which reversed that order. If prisoners previously received payments they are entitled to keep them if they had filed the proper paperwork with the federal government.