New research led by a Trinity College sociologist demonstrates the profound potential of guaranteed income for individuals reentering communities after incarceration.
Outcomes documented at programs in Gainesville, Florida, and Durham, North Carolina connect the receipt of unconditional cash with a variety of indicators of well-being for formerly incarcerated people.
The report presents “the first opportunity to understand how cash may alter the shadow of carceral citizenship,” wrote Lucius Couloute, assistant professor of sociology at Trinity College; and Nidhi Tandon, Stacia West, Sydney Blocker, Henisha Patel, and Amy Castro of the Center for Guaranteed Income Research (CGIR) at University of Pennsylvania’s School of Social Policy & Practice.
Trusted with the ability to make their own financial decisions, the pilot participants in the Just Income GNV guaranteed income program in Gainesville, Florida, and the Excel guaranteed income program in Durham, North Carolina, reported a greater sense of dignity and agency, and made substantial improvements in navigating material hardships. During both pilots, recipients benefitted from guaranteed income in several critical ways, including:
- Improved ability to cover emergency expenses;
- Increased monetary savings;
- Strengthened ability to help others, especially financially;
- Enhanced housing stability and independence;
- Increased food security;
- Improvements in mental health.
Given the significant connections between poverty and involvement in the criminal-legal system, guaranteed income programs have the potential to facilitate economic stability for formerly incarcerated people and disrupt cycles of recidivism.
“As a population that is largely—and legally—excluded from a range of opportunities and resources, our premise began with the idea that [guaranteed income] may work to smooth income volatility, improve individuals’ ability to reintegrate, and provide a foundation for socioeconomic mobility,” the authors write.
Aiming to address the unique challenges faced by this population, each program provided monthly cash payments to about 100 eligible formerly incarcerated individuals for one year. Just Income provided participants with $1,000 in the first month and $600 each month for the remainder of the program. In Durham, participants received $600 monthly payments for 12 months.
Research has shown people leaving incarceration face substantial barriers to success, safety, and stability, including housing discrimination, limited job prospects, social stigma, trauma, and financial stressors such as fines and fees that follow release.
These circumstances can also lead to mental and physical health complications that prevent formerly incarcerated individuals from connecting with their families or engaging in community. A stable income could promote economic mobility and help individuals avoid recidivism.
Said one participant from Gainesville, “This program has changed my life, it’s helped me and my family and our situation. It definitely makes a difference in the way a person thinks… And it makes a person want to do what’s right when there is someone on their side trying to push them forward. And if you aren’t being pushed forward, well you’re falling back in the hole.”
Led by Community Spring, an economic justice organization in Gainesville, Just Income focused on Alachua County residents with felony convictions who had been released from incarceration within the past six months.
The Excel program was launched in partnership with StepUp Durham and spearheaded by then-Durham Mayor Steve Schewel and Mayors for a Guaranteed Income. Durham residents were eligible to participate in Excel if they had been released from incarceration within the past five years and had an income at or below 60 percent of the Durham-Chapel Hill area median income.
In addition to the above outcomes, the Gainesville study found a reduction in recidivism rates following the receipt of guaranteed income. In Durham, while both the participant and control groups reported low rates of recidivism, these did not differ in a statistically significant way.
Still, the recipients reported outcomes that suggest unconditional cash can play a crucial role in reducing crime and re-incarceration. For example, recipients reported less difficulty in providing food for themselves, staying drug and alcohol-free, staying away from criminal activity, and avoiding probation or parole violations, according to the authors.
An Excel participant described the guaranteed income program as “an absolute necessity for ex-offenders, because there’s such scrutiny… being back in society. There are no programs for reentry. You don’t have housing set up, you don’t have… guaranteed employment. It’s nothing, nothing for the ex-offender. So, it is an absolute essential.”
The Center for Guaranteed Income Research is an applied research center specializing in cash-transfer research, evaluation, pilot design, and narrative change. The Center provides mixed-methods expertise in designing and executing empirical guaranteed income studies that work alongside the existing safety net.
