Jail procedure change after ex-inmate prints bogus commissary checks & cashes them
By: Nancy Cook
Updated: October 10, 2012
Harrison County Jail procedures have been impacted and changed by the arrest and conviction of a previous inmate.
Melissa Dinkins, 25, was arrested on April 8, 2011 and charged with a state jail felony of "Fraudulent possession and use of identifying information." She was released on the same day on a $14,000 bond.
Previously, inmates were issued a check upon their release from jail for their personal funds in the jail commissary account. Dinkins had used that banking information on the jail commissary checks to print bogus checks and cash them.
The revised jail policy now states that a debit style card is issued upon the inmates release with the remaining balance of their personal funds and there is no banking identification on the cards.
Many citizens have been victims of this type of scam and had their personal banking information used to illegally access their banking accounts.
The best defense to this is to know the person, who is writing the check, or be sure and get good identification of the person passing the check, if you are accepting it for any type of payment.
Typically, by the time the check has been returned from the bank as a bogus or fraudulent check, the person passing the check is on to their next victim after depleting an account and unraveling this type of offense is a long, costly and tedious process.
