The ‘Olympic Hurdles’ of Obtaining Federal Benefits for Inmates with Disabilities: A Study of Two Massachusetts County Jails

• Published date: 01 November 2021
• Date: 01 November 2021
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1177/00328855211048191
• Subject Matter: Articles

The ‘Olympic Hurdles’of

Obtaining Federal

Benef‌its for Inmates with

Disabilities: A Study of

Two Massachusetts

County Jails

Shahrzad Sajadi

1

Abstract

Sixty-four percent of US jail inmates are reported to suffer from mental

health issues, compared to just 18.9% of the general population. This dispar-

ity becomes greater when considering a broader def‌inition of disability, and

individuals with disabilities are overrepresented in correctional facilities.

They are often left without the ability to f‌ind employment at reentry,

with Supplementary Security Income (SSI) and Social Security Disability

Insurance (SSDI) providing pathways to housing and improved living condi-

tions. However, complicated application procedures often result in the for-

merly jailed returning to prior lifestyles and rearrests. This study explores

SSI/SSDI systems at two Massachusetts county jails.

Keywords

jail inmates, social security benef‌its, mental health, homelessness

1

University of Massachusetts, Boston, MA, USA

Corresponding Author:

Shahrzad Sajadi, U-Mass Boston School for Global Inclusion & Social Development, 100

Morrissey Blvd., Boston, MA 02125-3395, USA.

Email: shahrzad.sajadi001@umb.edu

Article

The Prison Journal

2021, Vol. 101(5) 609–626

© 2021 SAGE Publications

Article reuse guidelines:

sagepub.com/journals-permissions

DOI: 10.1177/00328855211048191

journals.sagepub.com/home/tpj

Introduction

“It’s awful hard for an addict in recovery who’s depressed, homeless, broke,

miserable and hungry and tired from being in a shelter and everyone loud all

night to stay sober. There’s so many hurdles, you’d have to be like an

Olympic hurdler to get through that maze and still be positive and stay sober

and have career goals and do stuff. Then you run into all the pitfalls if you

apply for SSI. What’s the chance of somebody like that staying sober while

he’s waiting for his claim to be processed?”—Rasoul

Snow and Briar (1990) called jails “modern day asylums, housing the men-

tally ill, public inebriates, drug addicts, developmentally disabled and people

with various medical problems”(p. 147). The past decade reveals that jails

and houses of correction are still considered “the largest mental health facil-

ities”in US counties (Fisher et al., 2000; Lamb & Weinberger, 2005; Jail

Administrator, 2018; Torrey et al., 2010). Reports by the Bureau of Justice

Statistics (BJS) have consistently placed prisoners and specif‌ically jail

inmates at signif‌icantly higher risk of disability and mental health issues

than the general public (Bureau of Justice Statistics, 2006, 2015).

For many ex-offenders with disabilities, mental health issues, and other

co-occurring disorders, the steady income provided by Supplemental

Security Income (SSI) and Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI) pre-

sents a possible pathway to housing and health insurance, decreasing the

risk of recidivism (Dennis et al., 2011; Dennis et al., 2014). However, slow

processing times and low approval rates among f‌irst- time federal benef‌it

applicants jeopardize the chances of successful integration into society,

placing these returning citizens at a greater risk of homelessness and a subse-

quent return to offending behaviors (Dennis et al., 2014).

The Social Security Administration (SSA) recommends utilizing the cor-

rectional pre-release setting, the period before release when the focus is on

inmate work, education, and treatment aimed at reintegration into society,

to link individuals with its disability programs (Dennis et al., 2014) and to

support the reintegration process. However, county jails across the United

States do not have a standardized policy for re-entry services for inmates

with disabilities (Morrissey et al., 2007), meaning that jail inmates have

vastly different service experiences, depending on the facility in which they

are housed (Osher et al., 2003; Steadman & Veysey, 1997).

This project addresses the lack of a standardized policy for pre-release dis-

ability services in county jails by seeking to identify disabled inmate barriers

to accessing SSI and SSDI from inside two Massachusetts county jail facili-

ties. This research explores the policies of the SSA at each of the county jails

610 The Prison Journal 101(5)