By Ted Gest
Monday, May 02, 2011 12:19
Despite popular belief, there is no federal law barring most former inmates from public housing.
Photo by 2kjb via Flickr
The challenge of steering the 700,000 inmates leaving U.S. prisons every year to the services they need never has been more daunting in a poor economy. Now, the federal government is stepping up its work to help the cause.
In a rare show of collaboration, 18 federal agencies that deal with re-entry issues are working together to clarify their practices, and in some cases change their policies, so that states and localities where the ex-prisoners live can better help them find necessities like housing, health care, jobs, and various government benefits.
Yesterday, what is known as the Federal Interagency Reentry Council posted a set of “Reentry MythBusters” as a guide. The material is available on a website, http://www.
To take one major myth as an example, it’s widely believed that people who have been convicted of a crime are banned from living in public housing. Actually, locally operated public housing agencies can determine their own policies. They are prohibited by federal law from admitting only those with a lifetime registration requirement as a sex offender or people who manufactured meth in public housing.
Housing and Urban Development Secretary Shaun Donovan is urging housing authorities to help “ex-offenders gain access to one of the most fundamental building blocks of a stable life – a place to live.”
Among other myths debunked on the new web site: that parents with felony convictions cannot receive welfare help under the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families program (TANF), that former prisoners can’t regain Social Security eligibility, and that ex-inmates are barred from getting federal jobs or federal student financial aid.
It’s true that many government benefits are denied to the 2.3 million people who are behind bars at any given moment. So many terms are so short -- often a matter of a few months – that convicts need help navigating the government benefit maze so that they can maximize the benefits to which they’re entitled.
The federal council is providing states information on how those now incarcerated can apply in advance to reinstate benefits as soon as they are released.
Most inmates are in state institutions, so it’s states that must decide how their practices can be streamlined. One example of a policy change on a federal level: the Veterans Administration now allows the many ex-convicts in community corrections programs like halfway houses to use federal veterans health programs.
One unusual aspect of the federal re-entry council is that it’s being managed by current federal employees with existing federal dollars. The federal Second Chance Act is providing about $83 million this year to help state and local reentry programs, but the federal coordinating work is an Obama administration initiative that wasn’t required by the federal law.
Attorney General Eric Holder has taken a personal role by convening the council, which aims at reducing the big problem of repeat criminality by helping those returning from prisons and jails to become productive citizens.
As reported in The Crime Report, Holder last month asked state governors and attorneys general to review provisions of their laws that hamper ex-prisoners from getting work, education, or other benefits but do not increase public safety. Holder vowed a review of federal laws on the subject.
Posted by George Schussel
Wednesday, May 04, 2011 08:07
There is no integration at all between the Federal Bureau of Prisons and the Social Security Administration for inmates leaving prison. No social security payments or Medicare benefits are available to inmates. But when you leave the BOP and go to a halfway house, the BOP will no longer cover your medical needs while the Social Security Administration says they can’t help you until you’re discharged, which means your end date of halfway house time. In other words, during your halfway house time you’re on your own for medical coverage. Once you get your discharge papers from the BOP, the Social Security Administration will then talk to you. But even then you can’t re-enroll in Medicare, because you can only sign up for Medicare during the period January through March of each year. When you sign up during that period you will not be enrolled in Medicare until July 1 of the same year. And, that’s not all. Social Security Administration will attempt to assess a big penalty before it re-enrolls you saying that those who were covered by Medicare and dropped out for a period are penalized for so doing.
On the other hand, if you are on social security or Medicare when you enter prison, you’ll get a personalized call from social security asking for a refund of monies they’ve provided if any is due. They are all over making sure you don’t get an extra penny, while once you’re out you are simply a personna non grata. So it’s not a matter of no integration between these two huge government agencies. It’s clearly a form of additional non-statutory punishment that the Federal Government has chosen to hand out to older or disabled ex-convicts.
Posted by Cynthia Neun
Tuesday, May 03, 2011 12:03
This is a very real and critical problem. Three months since being released from the Federal Halfway House in Las Vegas, disabled and having lost all of my property during my 5 year incarceration, I am still on the verge of homelessness. Social Security Administration declined my application for Social Security benefits based upon lack of work credits, even though I was “employed” during my prison term by Federal Prison Industries, a job I was forced to do to comply with the restitution order by the court. I worked a job that I should not have done that severely affected my medical condition for slave labor pay with half of that taken to re-pay the government for income taxes other people did not pay based upon my speech and advocacy services inside the IRS. I feel that I can become a productive worker again once my medical situation is stabilized. It is a very slow process, trying to get medical, food and housing on a month-to-month basis working with social services. Every step toward re-entry and productivity is fraught with obstacles and other deterrents. I am very interested in becoming involved to help other former inmates to be re-integrated into their families and communities.