As the majority of Americans have cashed their stimulus checks, incarcerated citizens are burdened under the weight of new restrictions along with mounting telecom and mailing costs for staying connected with loved ones throughout the pandemic. In May I wrote an article listing reasons, Why People in Prison Should Recieve stimulus money. That following October I was pleased to share that incarcerated citizens with the support of Lieff Cabraser law firm and the Equal Justice Society won a lawsuit filed against the United States Department of the Treasury and Internal Revenue Service that, “not only defended prisoners right to receive the stimulus funding that was sent to US citizens in response to the Coronavirus pandemic, but it also established a new class of people, the prison class, a class of people that Jailhouse Lawyers have been fighting to legitimize throughout prison resistance actions of the past decade.” While this win was a worthwhile advancement in the movement for prisoners human rights, it was logistically flawed resulting in only a fraction of incarcerated citizens actually being to make use of their stimulus payment.
I’ve received updates from incarcerated people and their support networks attempting to troubleshoot the chaotic scenario of completing the freefile tax form, for which a template had been included in R2VR Issue 16, and coordinating with prison mailrooms to deposit checks into prisoners’ individual trust account managed by the facility, for which many incarcerated citizens incurred unforeseeable fees assessed by the facility prior to the deposit. These instances were unfortunate, yet more ideal than others who still have yet to receive their stimmi. In North Carolina a subscriber writes, “inmates have received stimulus money because their family went online and filed but I don’t have on one to do mine.” In instances were papers for filing weren’t thoroughly distributed and checks had been lost in mailrooms past their deposit date, funds are converted to IRS tax credits, an unprotected source of revenue. Another prisoner in Washington state shares, “I did file for my stimulus tax in 2020 [but] if i was able to contact, then I’ll probably get it, but collect calls are 15min and it takes IRS 15-30min to get an operator on the line”. Following up with IRS representatives on EIP requests is nearly impossible for incarcerated recipients.
While there have been some success stories, for many who do not have internet access, a strong outside support network, readily available 1040 forms or the ability to make a phone call longer than 15min, then they are at mercy of DOC negligence. Unfortunately, as a result of the lack of coordination between IRS and DOC, tens of thousands of incarcerated citizens have fallen through the cracks in receiving pandemic support. I encourage the newly established prison class to enforce their class status by following up with their IRS office directly on their check/credit status using their SSN and approximate application file date. Write your local IRS office and let them know that your EIP was misallocated and/or confiscated by the prison, hold them accountable
