The government says about 3,900 economic stimulus payments of $250 each were sent to prison inmates.

The checks were part of the economic recovery package approved by Congress and President Barack Obama in February. About 52 million Social Security recipients, railroad retirees and those receiving Supplemental Security Income were eligible for the one-time checks.

While inmates are generally ineligible for federal benefits, about 2,200 of those receiving checks get to keep them because, under the law, they were eligible. A spokesman for Social Security says that's because they weren't incarcerated in any one of the three months before the recovery package was enacted.