Guaranteed Basic Income Programs for Prisoners Reduce Food Insecurity and Homelessness
The cities of Gainesville, Florida, and Durham, North Carolina, experimented with providing guaranteed basic income (GBI) to prisoners who were reentering the community, and have released information about the outcomes created by the program.
Both programs enrolled just over one hundred former prisoners. The Gainesville cohort received $1,000 upon release, followed by $600 per month for 11 months. The Durham cohort received $600 per month for the 12 months following release. These populations were compared to a control group who did not receive GBI over the same period from early 2022 to 2023.
The Gainesville participants reported that GBI “helped them secure housing, have more hope, increase financial resiliency, and put food on the table.” The share who reported being “worried about having enough food” decreased from “59% at the start of the program to 49% six months after payments ended.” Full-time employment among participants rose from 12% to 17% during that time.
The Durham participants reported a similar reduction in food insecurity, from 59% to 44% over the same period. However, the share “who felt they had enough money to support themselves rose from 3.7% to 18.35%.”
Housing was a more nuanced issue, with the Gainesville cohort reporting 3% homelessness after the first six months, but jumping to 12% six months after payments ended. In Durham those figures were 29% and 41%. It is unknown what other factors contributed to the difference in housing rates between the areas.
“These results show that if you provide a little bit of cash support, you’re allowing folks the space and the ability to not only reenter and breathe,” said Sukhi Samra, executive director of the advocacy group Mayors for a Guaranteed Income. “And prevent the sort of harm and activities that they wouldn’t be doing if it weren’t for a simple lack of cash.”
But GBI isn’t just a hand-out; it serves to offset the structural challenges faced by many returning prisoners. For instance, Florida prohibits people who have been convicted of drug trafficking from accessing safety net programs like SNAP and TANF. Brianna Seid, a lawyer for the justice program at the Brennan Center for Justice, notes that typical “gate money” is less than $200, an amount unchanged since the 1970s. It might “help buy a train or bus ticket home, but it isn’t near enough to pay court fees, lease an apartment, afford childcare, or establish reliable transportation, especially if people face limited access to safety nets.”
“There’s this idea that people get arrested or convicted, go to prison, and leave, and that’s just the end of the punishment,”Seid added. “I think for a lot of people, they don’t understand the ways that we excessively and perpetually punish people for having a criminal conviction, and it really touches every area of your life.” Samra also noted that the Gainesville and Durham cohorts reported that “having extra cash helped them better adhere to probation requirements and prevent further arrests.”
The Center for Employment Opportunities (CEO) ran a somewhat smaller program in California which provided $2,750, in three payments, to prisoners returning to the community. This program also resulted in higher rates of employment and reduced recidivism. An advocate for the program notes that reincarcerating one person in California costs $100,000 annually, so paying $2,750 to keep most participants out of prison represents a significant savings to taxpayers.
The payments also serve to reduce overincarceration, since judges and prosecutors are more willing to grant release based on the expectation of lower recidivism. Sam Schaffer of the CEO said, “that to us is a really exciting idea, how cash assistance could really help accelerate the depopulation of prisons and jails.”
Sources: basicincometoday.com, Prison Legal News
As a digital subscriber to Prison Legal News, you can access full text and downloads for this and other premium content.
Already a subscriber? Login