Woman Gets Prison Time for Cashing Dead Mother’s Social Security Checks for 23 Years

Blank Social Security checks are run through a printer at the U.S. Treasury printing facility in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, on Feb. 11, 2005. William Thomas Cain/Getty Images

A California woman was sentenced to prison for cashing in her dead mother’s social security checks for nearly a quarter century.

Emma Carter-Alexander, 66, of Vallejo, was sentenced to a year in prison and was ordered to pay $298,168.20 in restitution for using public money for her own use, according to the U.S. Department of Justice.