Prison with benefits: WI inmates collect $600,000 in unemployment

By M.D. Kittle | Wisconsin Reporter

MADISON — Who says you can’t collect unemployment in prison?

The law.

But that didn’t stop hundreds of inmates from cashing in on hundreds of thousands of dollars in illegal unemployment payments, according to information obtained by Wisconsin Reporter through an open records request.

There were 593 cases of “overpayments,” or jobless benefits paid in the names of Wisconsin prisoners between July 2012 and this month — to the tune of $616,248, according to state Department of Workforce Development records.

That’s more than double the amount uncovered in an audit in 2011, which found the Unemployment Insurance Division paid out $291,248 to inmates, according to DWD spokesman John Dipko.

Read more at WisconsinReporter.com

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