That is Bill Haslam, the Tennessee Governor.
by Chris Conte
NASHVILLE, Tenn. - Most prisoners (click here) end up behind bars because they did something wrong, but it appears hundreds of them may have continued to collect unemployment checks while sitting in jail.
"This isn't an issue where the department has an oversight and money just went out the door," explained Turner Nashe from the Department of Labor.
A few weeks ago Nashe and the department learned inmates received over $1.3 million in unemployment checks over the last year.
"It doesn't surprise me because we run into fraud all the time," he added.
Over the last few years every county in the state has put a new computer system in place that alerts victims' and their families when a criminal is getting out of jail and it turns out that technology found people on unemployment, ineligible for checks because they were incarcerated were still getting paid by the government.
"We've got about 65,000 people a week that receive a check, none of those people are not receiving a check because the people that are incarcerated are receiving a check," Nashe explained. (Huh?)
Officials say 944 inmates received those unemployment checks, spread that out across $1.3 million dollars and you average about $1,300 that each inmate received for the year of 2012.
"I don't think they were trying to cheat the system they just weren't telling the system to quit sending the checks (Huh?) even though they were incarcerated because someone at home was getting it," said State Senator Bill Ketron about the finding....
"I don't think they were trying to cheat the system they just weren't telling the system to quit sending the checks...
When an inmate doesn't inform the jail or prison they are receiving unemployment so the checks can be stopped that is doing something wrong. What the heck goes on in Tennessee?
