Funding
Funding
Services for ApplicantsMany jurisdictions have programs that offer interim financial or medical support to individuals awaiting SSI/SSDI, Medicaid, food stamp, or Temporary Aid to Needy Family (TANF) decisions. (See Maryland Temporary Disability Assistance Program.) Typically, to access such programs, individuals need to meet certain criteria that indicate that he or she will have a high likelihood of successful application. Such funding streams can enable individuals returning from prison or jail to have financial support for various types of services and supports. In addition, in some cases, access to general assistance may enable individuals to also access temporary types of medical insurance.
Interim Assistance
Social Security will develop interim assistance agreements with some states and counties. Under such agreements, states or counties will provide SSI applicants with interim financial support until a benefit is awarded. Typically when applicants are awarded SSI, they will receive cash assistance payments backdated to the date of eligibility. However, when interim assistance agreements are in place, these back payments go directly to the state or county entity that provided the individual with financial support while the decision was pending. Corrections agencies could consider initiating such agreements with local or regional Social Security offices. (See Miami Gap Funding Initiative.)SSA offers incentives to correctional facilities for electronically submitting inmate rosters and offers payment in return for every inmate who is disenrolled for SSI once SSA is notified. (See Glossary for further information.) Corrections officials could consider reinvesting incentive payments into reentry programming for individuals who will need access to benefits on release.
Medicaid Coverage of Outstationed Worker PositionMedicaid may partially fund “outstationed” eligibility workers to help initially process applications in various community settings such as Federally Qualified Health Centers. In some communities, corrections staff have successfully negotiated with Medicaid agencies or local offices to enable outstationed workers to provide some services in correctional facilities. (See Washington, D.C. Jail Outstationed Worker.) While Medicaid will not cover the entirety of this person’s staff time spent in the corrections facility, corrections officials can work with Medicaid staff to develop a cost-sharing plan.
Medication SavingsAccording to the appeals court for the Ninth Circuit, the Eighth Amendment requires states to ensure that a released inmate who has been receiving medication while incarcerated leaves the facility with “a supply sufficient to ensure that he has that medication available during the period of time reasonably necessary to permit him to consult a doctor and obtain a new supply.”[1] This decision is now law in California, Nevada, Arizona, Oregon, Washington, Montana, Idaho, Alaska and Hawaii.
Providing supplies of medication to individuals with serious mental illnesses, particularly multiple types of medication, can be very expensive for correctional facilities. Thus, if officials initiate programs to ensure immediate access to benefits or general assistance programs on release, the corrections facility may be able to avert spending on medications and reinvest savings into reentry programming for individuals who need access to benefits.
[1] See Wakefield v. Thompson.