Snapping Back: Food Stamp Bans and Criminal Recidivism

Tuttle, Cody

doi:10.1257/pol.20170490

Cited by 38 publications

(21 citation statements)

References 40 publications

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“…Over half of female federal prisoners' sentences involve drug trafficking, making women, who are often also mothers, extremely vulnerable to adverse consequences of SNAP bans (Turney, 2015;Zeng, 2020). Overall, research evidence supports the repeal of statutory bans from nutrition-related federal support programs while people are reentering society after incarceration for positive population health outcomes (Davison et al, 2019;McDonough, Ian, & Millimett, 2019;Tuttle, 2019;USCCR, 2019;Yang, 2017).…”

Section: Criminal Legal System Involvement and Snap Benefit Accessmentioning

confidence: 94%

Food Insecurity and Collateral Consequences of Punishment Amidst the COVID‐19 Pandemic

Golembeski¹,

Irfan²,

Dong³

2020

World Med & Health Policy

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Bipartisan governmental representatives and the public support investment in health care, housing, education, and nutrition programs, plus resources for people leaving prison and jail (Halpin, 2018; Johnson & Beletsky, 2020; USCCR, 2019). The Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act of 1996 banned people with felony drug convictions from receiving food stamps or Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits. Food insecurity, recidivism, and poor mental and physical health outcomes are associated with such bans. Several states have overturned SNAP benefit bans, yet individuals with criminal convictions are still denied benefits due to eligibility criteria modifications. COVID-19 has impaired lower-income, food-insecure communities, which disproportionately absorb people released from prison and jail. Reentry support is sorely lacking. Meanwhile, COVID-19 introduces immediate novel health risks, economic insecurity, and jail and prison population reductions and early release. Thirty to 50 percent of people in prisons and jails, which are COVID-19 hotspots, have been released early (Flagg & Neff, 2020; New York Times, 2020; Vera, 2020). The Families First Coronavirus Response Act increases flexibility in providing emergency SNAP supplements and easing program administration during the pandemic. Meanwhile, the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights recommends eliminating SNAP benefit restrictions based on criminal convictions, which fail to prevent recidivism, promote public safety, or relate to underlying crimes. Policy improvements, administrative flexibility, and cross-sector collaboration can facilitate SNAP benefit access, plus safer, healthier transitioning from jail or prison to the community.

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Section: Criminal Legal System Involvement and Snap Benefit Accessmentioning

confidence: 94%

Food Insecurity and Collateral Consequences of Punishment Amidst the COVID‐19 Pandemic

Golembeski¹,

Irfan²,

Dong³

2020

World Med & Health Policy

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“…State-level crime data for 2010-2016 are directly constructed by the FBI (U.S. Department of Justice, Federal Bureau of Investigation, 2011, 2012, 2014a, 2015, 2016, 2017a Bureau of Investigation, 2014b, 2014c, 2014d, 2017b, 2017c, 2019 . State-level crime data for 2010-2016 are directly constructed by the FBI (U.S. Department of Justice, Federal Bureau of Investigation, 2011, 2012, 2014a, 2015, 2016, 2017a Bureau of Investigation, 2014b, 2014c, 2014d, 2017b, 2017c, 2019 .…”

Section: Datamentioning

confidence: 99%

“…A large literature suggests that government transfer programs have been effective in reducing recidivism and crime (Berk et al, 1980;Berk and Rauma, 1983;Yang, 2017;Beach and Lopresti, 2019;Carr and Packham, 2019;Foley, 2011;Mallar and Thornton, 1978;Palmer et al, 2019;Tuttle, 2019). The first two derive from Medicaid's nature as a government transfer program.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The first two derive from Medicaid's nature as a government transfer program. A large literature suggests that government transfer programs have been effective in reducing recidivism and crime (Berk et al, 1980;Berk and Rauma, 1983;Yang, 2017;Beach and Lopresti, 2019;Carr and Packham, 2019;Foley, 2011;Mallar and Thornton, 1978;Palmer et al, 2019;Tuttle, 2019). 1 These crime effects appear to be driven by the income transfer features of these programs, which do two related things: they make life outside of prison better, increasing the incentives to avoid crime that may result in prison; and they provide financial security, which decreases the need to resort to crime to make ends meet.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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The effect of health insurance on crime: Evidence from the Affordable Care Act Medicaid expansion

Barkowski

2020

Health Economics

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Little evidence exists on the effect of the Affordable Care Act (ACA) on criminal behavior, a gap in the literature that this paper seeks to address. Using a simple model, we argue we should anticipate a decrease in time devoted to criminal activities in response to the expansion, because the availability of the ACA Medicaid coverage raises the opportunity cost of crime. This prediction is particularly relevant for the ACA expansion because it primarily affects childless adults, a population likely to contain individuals who engage in criminal behavior. We validate this forecast empirically using a difference-in-differences framework, estimating the expansion's effects on panel datasets of state-and county-level crime rates. Our estimates suggest that the ACA Medicaid expansion was negatively associated with burglary, vehicle theft, homicide, robbery, and assault.These crime-reduction spillover effects represent an important offset to the government's cost burden for the ACA Medicaid expansion.

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“…Though not the focus of the current paper, it is worth noting that banning individuals from participating in SNAP has other public health and safety concerns. For exampleTuttle (2019) shows that banning access to SNAP increases recidivism among drug traffickers as these individuals return to crime as a means of making up for the lost transfer income. 3 See https://www.texastribune.org/2015/08/30/supporters-new-law-hopeful-it-will-reduce-repeat-o/.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Criminal Incarceration, Statutory Bans on Food Assistance, and Food Security in Extremely Vulnerable Households: Findings from a Partnership with the North Texas Food Bank

McDonough

Millimet

2019

Applied Eco Perspectives Pol

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Leveraging a unique partnership with the North Texas Food Bank, we are able to collect original survey data from food pantry clients in North Texas to investigate a question that has received little attention due to a lack of data. Specifically, we assess the relationship between criminal incarceration and food security. Our analysis suggests minimal impact of incarceration, broadly defined, on household-level food security. However, differentiating between drug-and nondrug-related incarceration, our analysis suggests a positive causal effect of drug-related incarceration on food security, particularly among U.S. born households. This is consistent with an important role being played by the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) since many states ban participation by former drug offenders. To this end, we document a positive causal effect of incarceration on SNAP participation only among non-drug related offenders. The results call into question the efficacy of statutory bans on program participation for those reintegrating into society.

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Snapping Back: Food Stamp Bans and Criminal Recidivism

Cited by 38 publications

References 40 publications

Food Insecurity and Collateral Consequences of Punishment Amidst the COVID‐19 Pandemic

Food Insecurity and Collateral Consequences of Punishment Amidst the COVID‐19 Pandemic

The effect of health insurance on crime: Evidence from the Affordable Care Act Medicaid expansion

Criminal Incarceration, Statutory Bans on Food Assistance, and Food Security in Extremely Vulnerable Households: Findings from a Partnership with the North Texas Food Bank

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