Episode Transcript
[00:00:25] Speaker A: Welcome back to another episode of Just a bite. It's me, Audrey, and I'm so excited to be back with you today, hosting another episode with other food bankers. We have Robert from Shared Harvest Food bank and Bailey with the mid Ohio Food collective. Before we have Bailey and Robert introduce themselves, let's talk a little bit about what to expect in this episode.
Today, we will be revisiting a previously discussed topic from episode 15 titled Snap Outreach thoughts from the field. If you're familiar with SNaP, go ahead and click your skip ahead button. Otherwise, I'm going to give you a brief rundown. SNAP stands for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance program previously known as Food Stamps. SNAP Outreach is a partnership between the federal government, USDA, FNS, state government, and community based organizations. In Ohio's case, it's the food banks strategic and targeted outreach to low income and vulnerable people who are not currently participating in SNAP, with the goals of sharing information about the nutrition benefits of SNAP to help them make an informed decision on whether or not to apply. If they choose to apply, outreach workers then provide application assistance.
However, on this episode, we'll be talking a little bit less about SNaP outreach and more about SNaP inreach into our state's correctional facilities. I think this episode is a perfect complement to one of our more recent episodes, episode 48, titled Reentry after incarceration, where we discuss reentry for incarcerated individuals and what we can do as communities to prevent incarceration to begin with. However, as we know and continue to discuss on this podcast and through our work here at the Ohio association of Food Banks, there are many social determinants of health that affect people's livelihoods and well beings, all the way from their likelihood to experience food insecurity to their chance of being incarcerated. For those individuals who are currently incarcerated, but will soon have the opportunity for reentry, there are individuals who can benefit from Snap in reach work Robert and Bailey are doing every day at their member food banks. Robert Bailey, welcome and thank you so much for being here.
[00:02:49] Speaker B: Robert and Bailey, I would love to know a little bit more about yourselves. I know that the three of us spent all day together today in a snap convening, and we did a good icebreaker. So sorry to ask you again, but for our listeners, I'd love to know. And Bailey, we can start with you if you could just tell us a little bit about your position at your designated food bank, kind of what parts of Ohio that you're covering at your designated member food bank, and how long you've been doing work in food bank and or snap outreach.
[00:03:25] Speaker C: Yeah. So, I am the special populations manager on our benefits and customer outreach team at Mid Ohio Food Collective. What that kind of means is myself and my team of two other really hard working program coordinators focus on working with individuals who may have a harder time accessing our services through our more traditional outreach means, specifically at places like food pantries and soup kitchens, food kind of access sites, as well as with individuals who may have special eligibility for benefits. People who are immigrants, seniors, college students, as well as recently reentered folks. So that's what my team does. I have been doing snap outreach for about five years, and the thing that motivates me the most to do this work is just the ability to make a direct impact on individuals. When I've worked in other parts of food banking, other nonprofits, there were always really big problems to be solved, and I missed kind of the direct touch you have when you're sitting across from a person who has a problem that you have an immediate ability to solve. And so that's something I really appreciate about doing this direct outreach. Thank you.
[00:04:48] Speaker B: That's interesting. Is the five years that you've done snap all been at Mid Ohio Food Collective, or were you with an organization prior doing it?
[00:04:55] Speaker A: Has?
[00:04:56] Speaker C: Yeah. I heard somebody earlier today reference being, I think, was it a boomerang food banker? I would also call myself a boomerang food banker. I worked for our benefits and customer outreach team for about three years, and then I took a position in snap ed through OSU extension. And then in that time, specifically during the pandemic, our program at mid Ohio food collective expanded. We created a lot of new positions. There was a manager position that came open, and I happened to run into some old colleagues at a resource fair, and they were like, oh, we're hiring for this position. And I was at a point where I was like, I really miss direct outreach. And so it just worked out that I came back, and I have no intention of leaving now.
[00:05:37] Speaker B: Good.
I always so curious to see how people fall into food banking. Like, as a food banker myself, it's not something I thought I would fall into. So I love hearing people's stories. So I'd love to hear more from you, Robert, if you could as well just kind of give us the rundown. If you could tell us about the member food bank that you're with, the counties that you serve, and if you could tell us how long you've been working at this designated food bank doing snap outreach, and what motivates you so I'm Robert Zofeld.
[00:06:09] Speaker D: I'm with shared harvest food bank. We're based in Fairfield, Ohio, which is in Butler county. We serve butler, Warren, Miami, dark, and Preble counties. I'm the director of outreach and community partner services, so I oversee our direct service programs like SNAP Outreach, CSFP, the senior commodity boxes, our mobile food distributions, and then also our member agencies and all the compliance pieces with that. I have a small team of two people. We're looking to expand that, I guess a team of three people, and we're looking to expand that to be able to serve more communities. We're looking at serving hospitals and schools and trying to find unique ways to serve more families. I think the thing that motivates me the most to do this work in food banking is the direct service and just.
It's a job, and it's really nice because you're thanked for your work. I can't tell you how many times in a drive through line, someone has told me that their kids are going to have food to eat because of the work we do. And that's just really fulfilling and really rewarding. My team is also great and inspires me.
I have one team member who volunteers, like, all the time. He's not working, and he's just so selfless. And it's just really nice to work with people who are so giving and just kind of give you hope when sometimes it can feel like you live in a hopeless world and you're like, wow, there's some really amazing.
Yeah, it's been really great. I've been with shared harvest for seven years now in the snap outreach capacity, and then we just kind of put all of our programs in one boat, where if someone's coming and looking for food, we can get them snap. We can get them a senior commodity box, we can refer them to a food pantry, we can refer them to a mobile distribution, and we can just get them all the help that they need, because at the end of the day, it's all food that people are looking for.
[00:08:05] Speaker B: Yeah. And you listed. So shared harvest serves. I'm sorry, did you list four counties? Five counties. And then mid Ohio is 20, right?
[00:08:13] Speaker C: Yeah, we're based in Franklin county, but we serve 20 counties.
[00:08:15] Speaker B: Okay. That's always an interesting perspective for me as well. Like these big cities compared to really rural. And then having. Even though you're located in a big city, it doesn't exclude all the rural parts of Franklin. Right? Yeah, there's so much more. So very interesting. Okay, I have one last fun question. To get to know you guys before we kick off all the real fun.
And that is, as food bankers, we have to talk about food. So this will be our first episode of 2024. So I was actually curious, in celebration of the new year's, if either of you do pork and sauerkraut for New Year's Eve as a tradition. I know that's sometimes a thing here. Or if you have a delicious holiday side dish, maybe your favorite Halloween candy, something from Thanksgiving, hanukkah. Tell us a little bit about your holiday meal.
[00:09:11] Speaker D: So we don't do pork and sauerkraut. And that's really weird. I've never heard of that.
[00:09:15] Speaker B: Well, the research prior to this episode, I was like, let me google this to make sure no one made this up in my household.
[00:09:24] Speaker D: Okay, so no sour, no pork, no sauerkraut. And I've been in Ohio since 2005, so I don't know where you got that from.
[00:09:32] Speaker B: I don't know. I have to talk to my dad.
[00:09:34] Speaker D: About this, but I guess my favorite holiday food is ham. And I cook the ham, and I eat, like, the whole thing. So there you go. I'm a gluttonous ham eater. When I'm not, food doesn't count if.
[00:09:46] Speaker C: It'S on a holiday.
Yeah, I'm a vegetarian. I come from a family of mostly vegetarians, so pork and sauerkraut is not something I'm familiar with. Anything with potatoes, I am down for. Also, one of my favorite parts of the holiday is my mom is known for her pie making. And so before Christmas, there will be a day where she is just pumping out pies for, like, 15 different people that we're going to take them around to.
And so, yeah, the process of the pie making, inasmuch as the actual eating of it, I associate with the holidays. And that's one of my favorite parts.
[00:10:18] Speaker B: I love it. Those are both good answers. I'm a big ham girl. So I hear you, Robert.
That was certainly fun questions to get to know you guys. But I'm going to dive into more fun, which is snap policy. And of course, we have our two specialists with us here today who are experts in the field around the topic of what we're considering snap inreach into our prison systems and our correctional facilities. So let's dive more in today's topic and this idea of snap inreach. Ohio's food bank network has held Ohio's Snap outreach contract for nearly 15 years. Though not all food banks always have the capacity to participate, as we heard from Robert earlier, he's wearing a lot of hats. Smaller food bank opposed to Bailey, how many are on your team as far as snap at mid Ohio?
[00:11:15] Speaker C: We currently have 13.
[00:11:17] Speaker B: And you have about three, is that what I'm hearing, Robert?
[00:11:20] Speaker D: Yeah. So between the three of us, we handle, like you said, wear a lot of hats. So I have coordinators who can help sign up for SNAP, CSFP, whatever. But yeah, there's three of us right now, and we're looking to expand that.
[00:11:33] Speaker B: Okay, very cool. So we know that not necessarily all of the twelve food banks here in our network have the capacity, which is a goal for us in 2024. At present, eight of our twelve food banks are participating, with four food banks doing consistent and monthly corrections in reach. As of this recording, Ohio has 28 state run correctional facilities, with Snap outreach workers going into 25 of the 28 facilities once per month to assist interested inmates to be released within 30 days with their Snap applications if they so choose. Our network goal in 2024 is to have presence in all 28 state run correction facilities.
Ohio has a substantial criminal justice system with an average inmate population of 45,000 individuals, releasing approximately 21,000 people each year. However, nearly one in three formerly incarcerated Ohioans return to state prison within three years of release. This is not only bad for taxpayers who foot the bill, which is an average of $103.08 per day per incarcerated adult as of 2023, but bad for general societal well being. While there are many factors that contribute to high recidivism, which you can learn more about. In our previous episode, I mentioned featuring another food banker, Mary Evans, with the food bank in Dayton, Ohio. This is episode 48 for your reference. Research continues to show that lack of preparation for and reintegration into society is the fundamental reason. Even without specific policies against formerly incarcerated people, discrimination based on criminal record is legal and common and contributes to a myriad of obstacles to getting ahead, like finding housing, transportation, and a job, which only adds to the dilemma of putting food on the table. I hope that that grounds us in the room and the listeners, wherever you may be in our conversation with Bailey and Robert to come about the role of snap and food insecurity and helping those formerly incarcerated turn a new leaf now as we dive more into it. I know corrections in reach is a part of both of your outreach portfolios, but as we heard a little bit earlier, you're both coming to this from very different food banks located in various parts of the state and have been doing this work for various lengths of times. So, Bailey, if you don't mind, I'm interested to start with you at Mid Ohio food collection, which serves the largest number of counties in the state and the most people in the state. A couple questions for you to think about. I'm curious, at Mid Ohio food Collective, how does this translate to correctional facilities? So in other words, how many and which facilities are you going to as the mid Ohio food collective, how often are you doing this in reach? And if so, can you give us kind of what a typical day? Although typical may be an interesting word, but if you can, what a typical day of doing correctional inreach looks like in these facilities? I mean, that could be all the way from your drive out there. What happens when you enter the door? What's the follow up? How long do you stay? Just any and all kind of inter details you could share with us, I think would be a great perspective for our listeners.
[00:14:52] Speaker C: Sure. So we have partnerships with 13 correctional institutions. Many of them are. There will be two correctional institutions in the same county, often, like, right across the street from one another. That's the case in Pickaway, Madison, Ross county, and Marion county. So we're not going to 13 counties, but we have partnerships with 13 correctional institutions, twelve of which are currently active. The 13th. We are going to be resuming outreach in early 2024, so I'm very excited about that.
So, yeah, all of those we go to in person every single month.
And a typical day would be just getting on the road, often very early in the morning. The farthest one that I go to is Belmont Correctional, which is over a two hour drive from where I live in Franklin county. So that one is always a long day, just hopping on 70 east and sitting on there for a long time once we actually get to the facility. For those people who may never have entered a correctional institution, when I first started going several years ago, it felt intimidating. You're going through a metal detector, you're interacting with guards and prison officials, and it's not necessarily a warm and fuzzy environment.
Now that I've been going for several years, it's kind of just become, you get used to it, but get there. We do everything on our computers, but the individuals are given paper. We don't call them applications because it's not the official application form. We call them just like intake forms that we will then use to submit online applications for them. The reason that we bring in our computers is because we have created online accounts for everybody on the Ohio benefit site prior to entering the institution with their names and dates of birth and addresses. We are not sent their Social Security numbers in advance, and we don't take their Social Security numbers out of the correctional institutions. So we bring our computers in just so that we can enter those into the secure database and then not have to worry about the security of taking them in or out.
[00:17:18] Speaker B: How's that?
[00:17:18] Speaker C: Wifi. We have very handy little Wifi jetpacks that we bring in and out.
[00:17:25] Speaker B: I'm like, what's the password?
This is so interesting.
[00:17:29] Speaker C: No, we come fully equipped, so we're not dependent upon any other systems.
Yeah, the length of stay there kind of varies. There are some that I go to shout out to Chilikati Correctional Institution. That is the fastest, most efficient. I can get in and out of there in, like, 40 minutes, including the walk across the yard and back, where some others, like, I might be in there for 2 hours. There's some that we go to multiple units within the same prison. So we're kind of given our spiel multiple times also depends. There might be ones where I have, like, three people show up. There's others that we have, 50 people show up.
And every person might come up and have a specific question they might be trickling in. And so you're wanting to give the same information multiple times. So it just varies. And I try very hard to make sure that I give every individual there the opportunity to speak to me one on one to answer any specific questions that they might have, provide the individualized resources for them, make sure, if they need me to tell them exactly what their username and password is going to be, that I will. And just provide whatever kind of information, because there's so much information that they get when they're being released.
And we try to make this very simple and just repeating everything as much as we can. And just also treating people like humans, that was one thing I realized really quickly, like, how everybody has a number that they're given. Nobody is called by their first names, just all these things. So just trying to be as personable and interactive with everybody as we can be. And so sometimes that means that we're in there for a lot longer, because you give your spiel, you enter all of the information, and you're thinking, like, okay, I get to get out of here, like, 45 minutes earlier than I thought I was going to be. But then you end up getting into conversations.
Ultimately, that's the reason that I really enjoy doing that work. Even if you have to kind of remind yourself, all right, I'm not going to get home as quickly, but that's okay.
[00:19:41] Speaker B: Yeah. Well, thank you. I appreciate your humanity. And just, like, hearing you talk about it, you can hear that you're passionate about it. So I really appreciate the work that you're doing. Thank you.
Robert. We talked a little bit already about how you're in Butler county, which is the southwestern part of the state, and that your food bank is serving about five counties. So with that being said, if you could tell us a little bit about how many and which facilities that you're currently attending to do inreach, and what a typical day looks like for you in the southwestern part of the state.
[00:20:11] Speaker D: So we do two different facilities in Warren county. So eleven Inc Correctional and Warren Correctional institutions are, like Bailey said, like right next door to each other. I'm not sure why that's the case, but it just seems that a lot of times they're transferring people from prison to prison, and it seems to be beneficial in the ODRC to have two prisons right next door to each other. But Lebanon Correctional actually has been, like, the biggest prison for releases. So a lot of people are released from that prison compared to other prisons in Ohio. And that was true all the way from 2016 to 2020. As I looked at the numbers of how many people were released and how many people were applying for SNap through the ODRC SNAP program, it seemed like Leci was the largest. With the pandemic, that changed a little bit, but we were doing about 60 to 70 applications per month for just Leci for the longest time. Now it's down to about 40 applications per month. So we stay fairly busy at these two facilities. And then we actually also are working with Allen Correctional, which is way up north in Alima, Ohio. But not every food bank has a SNaP outreach program. So we actually partner with West Ohio Food bank, and they gave us permission to serve Allen County Correctional. So Allen Correctional actually, we don't travel there. They send us those applications via email once per month. So what that kind of looks like in all of those facilities. So we go into Lebanon correctional, Warren Correctional, and are a little bit different than mid Ohio. So we go into those facilities and they have a paper application, and it has all the information on it that we need to submit their application electronically. But then we just kind of look over that application, we have that person touch where we can explain to them the next steps that are going to happen. We're going to submit their application on the day that they're released from prison and just kind of talk them through next steps and give them the best possible chance of being able to get their SNaP benefits upon their release. We also give them a commonly asked questions and a packet to kind of go through scenarios of what they might need to do to get their benefits, other resources that might be able to help them. So we just want to give them all of the chances that we can not to end up back in the system upon their release.
[00:22:42] Speaker B: Thank you. It's really interesting to me, actually, that you brought up West Ohio and the way that you guys are partnering for me, I'm always really fascinated by how food banks operate programs differently. Prior to my very new position here at OAF, I worked the prior three years at Second Harvest, Food bank of Champagne, Clark and Logan counties, and they serve three counties compared to share harvest at five counties and mid Ohio at 20 counties. And CCL is one of the food banks I know hope is hopeful, ha, no pun intended, to connect with in 2024 about this work or implementing this work, along with a couple other of our member food banks, including West Ohio.
So I really just commend you both for doing this work and being leaders and role models to change in our field and having these different perspectives, yet all for the same cause. I'm really excited to see in 2024 how we can't bring in the other four food banks and really get into the all 28 correctional facilities. So thank you both for doing this for over five years, for both of you, and kind of being leaders and change, I certainly appreciate it. Clearly, it's made an impact. So, for example, you've both been in SnaP outreach for over five years. And in the past five years, our network has successfully completed applications for 30,000 returning citizens, which I think is wonderful, and you both play a hand in that. So thank you very much. As experts in the field here in our network, I'm curious to hear a little bit more about your experiences over the year. I know we talked about a typical day. I'm going to kind of get more in the nitty gritty here. But, Bailey, in your experience, are the correctional staff you interact with regularly, open and welcoming to this.
Know this can encompass everything from ensuring you have what you need to do the work, like your wifi pack, an open area, pins, pencils, making sure that you're aware of the rules of the facility, but also, do they make sure that the inmates within 30 days of release know that you're coming and make sure that they connect with you. Could you just give us a little bit more about how much communication is shared between correctional staff, inmates and then your work as snap in reach?
[00:24:58] Speaker C: I would say the biggest impact that we see from institution to institution or, biggest difference is just if there is a consistent person in the role that we are interacting with, whether it's a unit manager or a program manager, regardless of what the title is, if there is somebody that we every single month are interacting with, I would say in almost all the cases where that's the case, we have a great relationship. They're super helpful. They're super responsive. Every institution has kind of different policies and procedures and different capacities as well.
And so we try to tailor our services and our expectations a little bit to what is reasonable for them. For instance, our general expectation is that before we go to the correctional institutions, that they pass all of the inmates in advance so they can fill out their paperwork and then send those forms to us so that we can create profiles for them. We can pre screen all of them, make sure that we're not missing any information, or make sure that somebody isn't putting that they're going to Kentucky or that they're married and going home to their spouse or other things, that would mean that we wouldn't be able to assist them.
However, that requires that they have that room secured a week or two weeks before we come out there, in addition to when we come out, like in person. And for some places that just hasn't been realistic for them to be able to secure that. And so there's places that are just not able to facilitate that, in which case we go and we're doing the whole thing right there. Everybody's coming and filling out their papers, and we're creating everything on site. For me, my priority is consistency, whether it's just so long as I can expect the same thing when I go there and they can expect the same thing from me, I'm fine. If somebody doesn't have the same capacity at one site than the other, like everywhere else, these folks are understaffed, overworked, don't have all the resources that they need oftentimes. But, yeah, I would say that, generally speaking, the correctional staff that I interact with are very welcoming to our work. They are grateful that we are taking something off of their plate and that we're providing a service to them. And so I have been going into the prisons for several years now. I have developed strong relationships with many of the people I've been seeing the same individuals at one particular one. I've worked with the same person ever since I started. It's been the same unit manager. We talk about each other's kids or his grandkids or whatever, and so developing that relationship and familiarity has been really helpful. Where it can be challenging is where there are institutions that have a lot of turnover. And so you then go through the process of, like, maybe every two or three months, it's a different person managing the program, and that person is trying their best, just like all of us, but they don't know everything they are having to do. So then every time there's a new person, you are going through the process of kind of retraining them and re explaining expectations and making sure that you're not driving out first thing in the morning to a different county showing up and nobody's been passed, which has happened sometimes. But I would say so long as there's a consistent person in the role, we never really have any problems.
[00:28:33] Speaker B: Do you echo that, Robert? Are the correctional staff invested in making this program successful, or have you had a different experience you care to share with us?
[00:28:42] Speaker D: Say that we're blessed with Lebanon Correctional and Warren correctional institutions, that their staff have been so helpful, and they do everything they can to make sure that everyone knows about the SNAP outreach program. And like Bailey said, we are taking something off their plate, which they're very grateful for that, like she said, also that they're overworked, and this is just one more thing that they don't have to do, because we're able to help them and able to thoughtfully help them and get them even more resources and have conversations with these folks who are getting out and telling them what to expect and helping them through the process and giving them information that they can use after they get out. And I think that's really helpful. I've worked with the same person at Warren Correctional ever since I started in 2016, and that's just so helpful as they know the process and can really tell their unit managers and everyone who's being passed what to expect, and they just learn from working with us. And that's so helpful to have that retention.
But, yeah, as people change in Lebanon Correctional, there's definitely a learning curve. The biggest problem we have with our prison outreach is fog when we go and the yard is closed, because if there's fog, if there's heavy fog, then they don't let anyone out of their cells into the yard, and then they can't come to the visiting room to come see us, and then we don't get to do anything, and we don't get to have those personal conversations with the people getting out, and there's just a loss of information there.
[00:30:19] Speaker B: Wait, what if it's foggy outside?
[00:30:25] Speaker C: No, they can't visually see them. And then you don't know how long fog is going to take to pass. And so oftentimes when I've experienced that, it's ones where I'm going somewhere in the morning, somewhere in the afternoon, and they're like, this could clear up in 15 minutes, or we might not let you in, period. And so you're just kind of in limbo and you can't call in advance and know, all right, we're going to be under a fog plan, so you're just going to get up and go regardless.
[00:30:54] Speaker D: Or if there's a fight, they might also go under lockdown.
[00:30:57] Speaker B: All right, well, I'm going to kind of bring us back around because I don't know if Fog's going to make the podcast or not. I guess we'll see how I'm feeling the day I edit it, but I am going to bring us back around. And Robert, you actually very briefly touched on this when you were talking about the correctional staff being involved. I'm curious to know, in your experience specifically, Robert, since you've touched on it, are newly released inmates given upon release items to help them reintegrate? And in your experience, what have you seen? Is that money? Is that a bus pass? Is that a clean shirt?
And is what you're seeing, I mean, I guess this is really an opinion question, but do you feel like it's enough, it's an accurately acceptable amount of help to get an inmate off the ground running as they're recently released and entered in society?
[00:31:55] Speaker D: That's a big question. I feel like people aren't given enough upon their release.
Unfortunately, this is a population that's oftentimes burned a lot of their bridges. They don't have anyone to help them.
Some of their families written them off. They don't have anywhere to stay. They're essentially homeless upon relief.
They might not have any money or anything but the clothes on their back. And I've had several inmates tell me that they're pretty much just asked where they want to be dropped off. And that's just a really scary notion to me, too. They're given resources and places that hire formerly people who have been incarcerated. But whether they're able to secure a job or employment or shelter, and it's hard to get employment without shelter, and it's hard to get employment without food and resources. So I think that there's definitely room where we could do more for the people being released to give them a better chance to make it and not be rereleased and some of the most disheartening times where I've visited a prison, one of the service coordinators might be like, oh, well, joking with the inmate that they'll see them when they are reincarcerated because they're a frequent flyer where they've been in and out of the prison system for years and years. And it's actually something the inmates making jokes about that they're going to be reincarcerated. And it's just so sad. And I just hate to see that. And I tried to give that person the best help I can to make sure that they have resources and know that there are people who care and want them to succeed.
[00:33:40] Speaker B: Well, thank you for that. It certainly makes a difference. Are you seeing the same thing in the 13 correction facilities, or do you feel like the service area with mid Ohio and those 13 correctional facilities are giving adequate.
[00:33:54] Speaker C: No, I would absolutely say that we're seeing the same things. So they're given like a release card that has their name, date of birth, Social Security card that they can take to the BMV in exchange for estate ID.
They get some money.
If you aren't having somebody pick you up, you are given a bus pass, but there's only certain places that it'll take you to, like only certain stops.
And if you are having somebody pick you up, you get slightly more money than you would if it's not having to go to a bus pass. I think that's the case. I'm not an expert on that, but, yeah, so very basic things, but it's absolutely not enough. And I think we see this with our reentry population, but we see it with everybody. Housing is the main thing we need to be able to offer as a stabilizing force in people's lives. Like Robert said, you can't secure employment if you don't have stable, safe, sustainable housing.
And it's often the last thing that we offer people. And the waiting lists for even the most quote unquote sympathetic, deserving people are super long. And so affordable housing for our reentry population is really hard to come by. So, yeah, I think that unfortunately, so many people are coming out into a system that is not designed to serve them. And if they don't have a support system to help them when they get out, it's no wonder that so many people end up reincarcerated again.
[00:35:35] Speaker B: Actually, talk to us a little bit more about what those steps are for you as far as following up with an inmate or someone who was recently incarcerated. So you go in, you help them fill out the application, you submit it on their behalf immediately following release. What happens after that? Do you currently have any capacity to follow up with them to ensure that they've completed their interview and received benefits?
Or do you not really have that capacity as of right now?
[00:36:08] Speaker C: So up until very recently, we would check the status of the application and just to get our approval ratings. In the last couple months, I just myself have started pulling reports so that three weeks out from when the individuals are released and their applications have been submitted, I am contacting everybody who listed a phone number or an email address to touch base with them to offer reminders and say, hey, did you complete your interview? Oh, no. You never heard from jobs and family services? Don't wait to hear from them. Call them tomorrow. This is the number. Call at 08:00 a.m.. Oh, you did complete this, but you didn't hear like, if you need to turn anything in, here's your login information from your account. Log in and see if you have a message telling you what documentation you need to submit. Oh, you're waiting on this? You didn't realize that you needed to order yourself a new EBT card. Here's the number. Let's do that. Just like things that we do go over in depth when we are there. But again, like I said, there's so much information, I can't expect people to remember it. And we give out papers that have reminders, but I also can't expect everybody to hold on to those. So we are trying to do follow up touches for everybody.
I hope that ultimately that will improve our approval ratings for the individuals that we are assisting through the reentry process.
Too early to be able to see if that's going to have an impact, these reminders and things like that.
But I definitely have just in the course of having these conversations, noticed an immense amount of gratitude and just feeling like, oh, somebody is caring enough to follow up with me directly and offering help and support and resources.
[00:38:05] Speaker B: I think that's really interesting to hear. And I'm curious now to hear from you, Robert, with your team being only three compared to 20, what is your capacity like as far as follow up with inmates?
[00:38:19] Speaker D: Yeah, so we apply about, I would say about 60 to 65 families for benefits every month. And then we reach out to each of those persons two weeks after they're released.
We see where they're at in the process. Did they do their application? Were they able to do a phone interview?
And we kind of advise them kind of like Bailey said, reach out to your job and family services. If you haven't done your phone interview yet, don't wait for them to contact you. It's just better to be proactive and get that conversation going and get your benefits process rolling.
[00:39:00] Speaker B: So, yeah, I'm just curious with something you said, Bailey, about having phone numbers and emails, are you able to have a relatively reliable point of contact for these individuals in the sense that if they're leaving you with a phone number and email and then you're going to do this follow up in two weeks, does that phone number actually work? Does that email actually connect you to the individual or are you experiencing like these people are getting released and they don't have access to a cell phone or maybe what it is, so they don't have any email or any follow up that they've left behind? I'm just curious, what's the percentage rate or kind of stats on how many you think that you actually get true access to post release without having any.
[00:39:50] Speaker C: Actual data on it?
I would guess probably anywhere between 30 and 40% of the individuals don't have follow up contact information beyond an address.
Not a lot of email addresses. And if somebody has an email address, I'll usually send an email, but I've found recently I have not gotten emails back from anybody.
Hopefully that I provide more information in an email than I would in a voicemail. So they're like, okay, here's a reminder. I don't need to email you back.
Most of the phone numbers that are given are relatives phone numbers. It's not like that person's cell phone that they've been sitting and waiting. But that can be more helpful because a relative's phone number is more likely to be active and turned on versus if it was their old number, it might not have minutes on it, the bills might not be paid on it. And typically by the time I actually am reaching out to them, that relative says, oh, they have this new phone number, here it is. Or it's in that person's interest to say, this person is living with me. I want to make sure that I can help them get food. They're not here right now, but I'm going to have them call you back.
So oftentimes if they give a phone number, usually we will be able to connect in some kind of way.
[00:41:05] Speaker B: Okay, interesting. I was just curious about that.
[00:41:08] Speaker C: Many people don't on that application will not know that. And oftentimes people come to the clinics and won't know their address, that they're going back to. They might have one, but they don't know what it is off the top of their head. So what our hope is is that by the time they get out, they will have more information that they can provide to the county when they complete their interview to fill that stuff out. But it does make it harder for us to connect with them.
[00:41:33] Speaker B: Thanks for that information. I really appreciate it. I feel like I'm just so curious about follow up and what it's actually like as far as accessibility for these individuals. So thank you for that perspective. How imperative is food insecurity to get on your feet post release? I think this is a really interesting question for food bankers.
What data or research or maybe personal opinions or stories that you guys have seen with how imperative that food security is for post release success?
[00:42:09] Speaker D: Without any data, I can't really give you any statistics, but I'd say just from my time doing this for seven years, I'd say the only thing more important than food security is just housing security, a place to live, a place to have an address and to be able to reliably receive mail and to have an address so they can get a job and then provide themselves with everything else they need. But I would say food security is right behind that. And it's hard in some of our more rural communities where there's not the amount of food pantries and food resources, where there are in the metro counties like Cincinnati, Columbus, Cleveland, where there's a lot of places you can go within walking distance, where that's not everywhere. And I think one thing that really makes or breaks, whether someone makes it and doesn't get reincarcerated, is if they have some sort of support structure. I think people who don't have support, who don't have a family member who still is looking out for them and helping them through being released from incarceration, are the ones that are most at risk of ending up back in the system.
[00:43:28] Speaker C: Yeah, I would agree with all that. I mean, access to food is a human right, and regardless of what somebody's criminal background or life circumstances or anything is, they should have the same right to being able to feed themselves that anybody else should. A point that was brought up by one of the other food bankers in our meeting today is that for some folks, them being able to stay with a family member upon their release might be contingent upon their ability to provide food for themselves. So somebody's like cousin or mom or brother might say, yeah, you can stay with me, but I do not have the resources to be able to feed you. So if you can provide your own food, you can stay with me for a set amount of time. But if you can't, I'm sorry, I'm not able to house you. So these things can be connected. I completely agree with Robert. Housing is something that is essential, that unfortunately, we don't have the ability or we aren't prioritizing providing it right now, but food can lead to housing as well. And so being able to provide this benefit, I think, is really essential.
[00:44:38] Speaker B: Yeah, I think you hit it dead on the nail with, it's a human right, and we have to always go back to the social determinants of health and those basic human rights. So thank you for that.
We know from listening to the both of you for the past 40 minutes or so that you also conduct snap outreach outside of the correctional facilities. What would you say is the biggest difference between helping people on what we'll call the inside versus helping people on what we'll call the outside?
[00:45:15] Speaker D: I'll go first. So I'd say most of the people in the inside or the inreach work we're doing at the prisons, they're single people without families oftentimes, because, like I said, they've burned those bridges. So it's just a single person. But out at the food pantries, out at the food distributions, when we're applying for benefits, I think a lot of times we're seeing other vulnerable populations, such as families with kids or seniors. Yeah, that's kind of one of the differences I see. Whereas the prison community is there's just a lot of barriers that they face that you don't have to talk about. You don't have to have those hard conversations about where are you going to be staying, what county are you going to? You don't know what county you're going to. How are you going to handle that? How are you going to get me that information so I can submit your application? Or if we're absolutely at a point where it's like you don't know where you're going, well, here's what you need to do when you get out. You need to go down to your local job and family services for whatever county you end up in. And that's just such a hard thing to think about. Just imagine you're sitting in a room and you're like, I don't even know what county I'm going to be living in a week from now when I'm released. So there's a lot of barriers that they face. And it's a different feel, and it feels a lot different helping a family who has resources, any resources, as opposed to helping someone who's being released.
[00:46:47] Speaker C: That's so true. I would just add that when we're doing outreach in the community, we are working with each individual or each family directly in that moment, and then I can follow up with them tomorrow. I know what the process is going to be like for them a little bit more. As opposed to going in speaking to a group of 50 people, entering each of their applications separately over the course of the next several weeks, they might be going to a variety of different counties. I'm not going to know exactly what the different administrative policies are in each of those counties, exactly what all the resources are as opposed to. If I'm speaking to a single mom, like in Franklin county at Columbus Public Health, I know what the resources are right here. I know how I can connect with her. She's going to know what my cell phone number is. She's going to just be able to provide a lot more personal support in that moment versus what we're able to provide to the individuals that we're assisting in the prisons.
[00:47:47] Speaker B: That's also a really interesting perspective, especially when we're talking about we met earlier today for the snap convening and just how even we are the state of Ohio. But 88 counties do things differently and just how hard that can be for someone to navigate. And Robert, I think you hit it dead on the nail. I can't imagine being housed in a facility in one county and not knowing where I'm going to go next. Right? That seems unimaginable to me, but that's very incredibly real for a lot of people. So thank you for the perspective because we're trying here at the associations and kind of at these policy and state levels to make things like this a little bit more seamless for our neighbors. So it's not like 88 different rules in one state. I have a final question and then I will leave with what would you say is the most rewarding part of correctional inreach and the most challenging or frustrating part of this reentry work? And I will open that for whomever wants to start.
[00:48:57] Speaker D: I'm going to let Bailey go first.
[00:48:59] Speaker C: I would say the most rewarding part of correctional inreach is just being able to hopefully make the process of reentry just a little bit simpler and smoother for people who are facing enormous barriers and hopefully make their lives a little bit easier. The most frustrating and challenging is how many barriers there are, and how much the systems often do not exist to protect them and assist them, even the systems that theoretically should.
[00:49:41] Speaker D: So I want to say the most rewarding thing about inreach is the conversations that you have with the people being released, and some of them are just so helpful, and you can just see in their eyes and they're telling you, it's going to be different this time. I'm going to get my life together. This is my plan. And they'll just start talking and just want to tell you this is their time and how they're going to get their life together and how they're going to get their kids back and how you just have hope for them and you just want them to succeed. And I always leave just hoping that all the things worked out for that person. And I don't know, it's just like an interesting life event to just kind of see them go through this and talk about it. And then I'd say the most challenging thing is just all the barriers they face and trying to help them through that when a lot of people have given up on them.
But like Bailey said, no one deserves to go hungry. So I think we can agree on that.
[00:50:44] Speaker B: Well, I think that's a beautiful place to end today's episode. Robert, I appreciate what you said about sharing hope with our individuals who are incarcerated here in Ohio, because they certainly deserve it, as they deserve all basic human rights, including food security. So thank you both.
That wraps up today's episode on Snap inreach into our state's correctional facilities. I want to thank both Bailey with met Ohio Food Collective and Robert with shared harvest for their time today. I really appreciate your insight, and I truly thank you for the work you do every day as food bankers for our communities here in Ohio.
[00:51:21] Speaker D: Thank you so much for having us.
[00:51:29] Speaker A: Thank you for listening to our first episode of 2024 on Snap Inreach into Ohio's correctional facilities.
As a reminder, Ohio has substantial criminal justice system, with an average inmate population of 45,000 releasing approximately 21,000 people every year. However, nearly one in three formally incarcerated Ohioans return to state prison within three years of release.
The work Bailey and Robert are doing every day with incarcerated people in Ohio is critical to not only their physical and mental well being, but clearly correlates with the likelihood for recidivism.
I want to thank Robert and Bailey for their time on the podcast today and for the critical work they do every day to connect our neighbors to snap benefits, to learn more about SNAP benefits, or how our member food banks can assist you with this process, please visit our website, ohiofoodbanks.org and see our show notes for additional resources. Thank you for listening to today's episode. We can't wait to bring you more.
[00:52:42] Speaker B: In the New Year's close.
