By Diana Martine, Chicks Ahoy Farm, Inc.
Chicks Ahoy Farm Inc is a community-based organization working toward systemic change, from local towns and cities to the state legislature. We envision a world where food, housing, clothing, water, and other basic human needs are affordable and readily accessible to families living in underserved areas of the state who are marginalized by the criminal justice system.
While Connecticut prisons currently house about 11,000 people, our probation and parole systems supervise over three times that– about 35,000 people. Countless others in our communities have completed supervision at least once. A recent report by the Prison Policy Initiative, which references our work in Connecticut, details how over half of people on probation earn under $20,000 a year, which is below the SNAP income threshold. This is exacerbated by race and gender, as evidenced by 70% of all women and 81% of Black women on probation earning under $20,000 a year. Restricted access to SNAP benefits for people with violations disproportionately hurts women on probation. In addition, at least 20% of formerly incarcerated people report experiencing food insecurity, and in Connecticut, where the vast majority of people incarcerated come from our major urban hubs, that insecurity is bolstered by food deserts and the lack of farms in urban and suburban spaces. Our member group, Cultivating Justice, launched the FREE CT campaign last year, recognizing that people attempting to stabilize themselves in our communities post-conviction or incarceration need steady access to healthy food.
Violations of supervision are commonplace and can occur for both criminal actions and actions that are not crimes in and of themselves, such as missing a meeting or being in contact with others on probation. Violating supervision can upend whatever progress people have made post-incarceration, causing them not just to start over again, but to face starting over from a deep deficit. If the purpose of probation or community supervision is to give people a chance to establish themselves, reconnect with their families, gain employment, and successfully contribute to our communities, restricting their access to food works directly against those goals. We know people are less likely to recidivate if their basic needs are met, and food is as basic as it gets.
Connecticut’s SNAP application question asks, “Do you or any member of your household have a probation or parole violation?” Applicants can only answer “Yes” or “No”. This question is vague on several levels. Is it meant to apply only to people currently on probation or parole? Does the question apply to juveniles in a household? If you have a violation on your record from years ago and have since completed supervision, does that count? If you answer based on how you read it and it turns out you misinterpreted the question, can you be accused of providing false information on a government application? When faced with these questions, individuals or families might decline to apply because they think they will be denied, or they might opt to remove family members they think might worsen their odds of approval from their applications. Both this question and its underlying policy deter people from seeking the help they need, leaving people in our communities hungry.
To stop the harm done to individuals and families with members who have probation violations, FREE CT seeks to model 11 other states, including Massachusetts, that completely opt out of disqualifying people with probation violations. In Connecticut, we can give people with violations full access to SNAP benefits and ensure their food security by simply removing one word from the existing state statute and modifying or removing the SNAP application violation question. Our members have moved state legislators on the Human Services committee to raise this concept out of committee, and we will be pushing for it until it’s codified in law and in practice by the Department of Social Services.
Our systems spend millions of public dollars to incarcerate and supervise our residents. People under supervision are one bad day away from prison and food insecurity, when our tax dollars could be invested in true community safety that would enable them to secure employment, food, housing, education, and healthcare. Cultivating Justice members and our allies believe a new way is possible. Our members, with support from policymakers and criminal justice reform advocates, are organizing to create a change model that sets legislative priorities for criminal justice reform and local action led by directly impacted people from underserved communities and suburban towns. You can join us by signing up for our monthly updates, coming to our community meetings, reaching out to your legislators in support of SNAP reform, and sharing our messaging and public education materials.
Diana Martinez,
Executive Director
Chicks Ahoy Farm, Inc.
diana@chicksahoyfarm.org
