“At that time, realizing the scope of the fraud, I was not satisfied with only proceeding against the store’s owners,” said Carnright.
In need of additional investigative resources, and caught in the middle of a budget cycle, Carnright approached county Legislator Jack Hayes and County Executive Mike Hein for a special appropriation of $25,000 to hire an investigator to work full time tracking down and accumulating evidence against the alleged welfare cheats (another $25,000 was contributed by the state). Carnright hired former Ulster County undersheriff George Wood to take on the case. Carnright lobbied lawmakers to approve the funds while remaining quiet about their actual purpose. Carnright said that he also promised lawmakers he would recoup the expense in the form of restitution paid by those identified as having abused their benefits.
The investigative team spent eight months interviewing dozens of people who used food stamps at the Sunoco station zeroing in on those who recorded suspicious transactions.
Povill said that the welfare cheats gave a range of reasons for participating in the fraud.
“It really runs the gamut. Some people were very up front about it and told us, ‘I was on drugs at the time.’” said Povill. “Then you would have a woman trying to support three kids who needed the cash to pay rent.”
By Monday, when Carnright declared the case closed, 18 food stamp recipients had been convicted on felony or misdemeanor counts of welfare fraud or misuse of food stamps. Another 12 were indicted by an Ulster County grand jury earlier this month. Charges are still pending against 20 additional suspects. All of those convicted will be barred from receiving food stamp benefits for at least a year.
Banned for a year
In addition to the criminal defendants, another 50 food-stamp recipients identified in the investigation as having traded benefits for cash or ineligible items signed voluntary disqualification agreements with DSS officials. They will be banned from the program for one year and will have to pay back any fraudulent benefits received. In another 40 cases, food stamp recipients were involuntarily bounced from the program because they either failed to show up for interviews with investigators or were found to be ineligible for the program for reasons other than fraud. Carnright said the decisions whether to proceed with criminal charges or administrative sanctions through DSS was based on the accused’s level of involvement, willingness to cooperate with investigators and motives for the fraud.
“Frankly, we were after the people who were taking the money and going out in the parking lot to buy crack,” said Carnright.
Going after the people who took advantage of the situation is not a good idea for a number of reasons.
1. You aren’t going to get the money from back from them. They were already on food stamps remember?
2. Crime is going to up as a result. Whether it was to feed a drug addiction or to pay the rent (and now to feed the family), these people will always find a way to get the money. Instead of fraud, the methods with now be in the form of increased robbery, prostitution, and drug dealing in mid-town. If nothing else look at it mathematically. Once these people commit these crimes and get locked up, how much money will tax payers be losing by keeping them in prison?
3. You are going to further alienate the mid-town community from law enforcement and government. The children are going to go hungry and be raised to understand it was the powers that be that leaned on the parents and tried to get blood from a stone. This opens the door to increased gang populations and activity in our community. semi-organized crime will be presented as a reliable source of income, food, and security. Even the neighbors of these people will feel resentment at having to live in the situation officials will have created.
What’s the solution? These people have no money, but what they do have is time. Punish them by taking their time. Put them to work in soup kitchens, street cleaning/maintenance programs, etc. Establish an incentive program of debt forgiveness based on reporting criminal activity. You have an army of 50 people who cannot pay, but can work off their debt. Mid-town needs a facelift, and many hands make lighter work.
Whatever you do, do not punish the children. If someone took away 20% of your food for a year you would feel it. That treads very near to cruel and unusual punishment.
What these people did was wrong, but not entirely evil. They abused the system. But abuse should not beget abuse.