It can be rather taxing to comprehend how federal and state prisoners have been able to file fraudulent tax returns and receive millions of dollars while locked up behind bars.

It is even more frustrating that the Internal Revenue Service believed because of tax laws that it couldn’t share the flagged income tax returns with the federal bureau of prisons because the Bureau of Prisons was turning over the information to the justice department for prosecution.

State prison officials also have been stymied by the standoff involving the IRS.

U.S. senators from New York, Ohio, Minnesota and Florida pushed for an agreement that opens the doors that never should have been shut. Internal Revenue Service and the federal Bureau of Prisons worked out a memorandum of understanding for the IRS to turn over fraudulent tax returns filed by prisoners to the federal Bureau of Prisons.

In Ohio, half of the 1,500 fraudulent inmate tax returns in 2009 came from the London Correctional Institution in central Ohio.

The prisoners took advantage of others to get placed behind bars and then continued taking advantage of the millions of honest American taxpayers by filling out false income tax returns.

The IRS shouldn’t have hidden behind bureaucrat red tape. These prisoners need to be brought to justice.

(Steubenville) Herald-Star