Bounty Hunters

From the Fresno Bee:

Local governments strapped for cash are turning to a new source of income: a bounty payment for reporting jail inmates to the Social Security Administration. ...

Although the bounty payments aren't large, they add up.

The Fresno County Sheriff's Department gets about $4,000 to $8,000 a month under the bounty program, and collected about $48,000 from July 2010 to January 2011 ...

"It's a very successful program," said Lowell Kepke, spokesman for Social Security's San Francisco regional headquarters. ...

Although 99% of jails and prisons in the United States have signed up, "Social Security would like all institutions to be participating" because the program saves the government money, Kepke said.