More than $22 million in stimulus checks were sent to persons deceased or in prison, according to an audit report released by the Social Security Administration.

Checks for $250 were sent to nearly 72,000 dead people and 18,000 prison inmates as a part of the American Reinvestment Recovery Act in 2009, the report says.

Many of the dead who received checks had died recently, and the SSA was not informed of their death in time.

Roughly $10 million of the erroneous payments has been returned so far.