THE INVESTIGATORS: LWC paid $6.2M in unemployment funds to prisoners, audit shows Audit reveals that millions of dollars were sent to inmates By Scottie Hunter | May 3, 2021 at 4:31 AM CDT - Updated May 3 at 12:30 PM BATON ROUGE, La. (WAFB) - An audit conducted by the Louisiana Legislative Auditorâs Office reveals the Louisiana Workforce Commission (LWC) paid millions of dollars in unemployment funds to prisoners. The audit, released Monday shows the agency responsible for handling unemployment funds gave out more than $6 million in benefits to 1,195 incarcerated individuals who did not qualify for the program. Those improper payments were made between January to November 2020. According to the findings, 92 inmates received only one week of benefits but more than a thousand inmates received more than one week of benefits. In response to the auditâs findings, LWC Secretary Ava Cates sent a letter to the temporary legislative auditor, acknowledging the improper payments. The following is part of that response.