SNAP stays out of reach for Nebraskans with felony drug convictions

Derrick Olivares Martinez cooks dozens of beef and cheese enchiladas in his Lincoln apartment kitchen. It’s a small business of his to make some extra money and support his friends and family. He refuses to make his enchiladas with store-bought sauces and instead makes it all from scratch.

This small act means so much more than offering one meal to loved ones for Olivares Martinez. He knows what it’s like to go without.

“Food is an essential part of your life every single day,” he said as tears began to form in his eyes.

In 2012, Olivares Martinez was released from prison for a felony drug conviction. Because of that, he faces a lifetime ban on Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits. Olivares Martinez was released with only the clothes on his back and $100. It didn’t take long before he was homeless - and hungry.

“I felt frustrated and disappointed that, hey, when you serve your time, when you get out, you're just like, ‘OK, why am I being punished more for something that I've already paid my dues for?’” he said.

In the most recent legislative session, Nebraska lawmakers voted to end the lifetime ban on SNAP for residents convicted of drug felonies related to distribution. There is essentially a three-strike rule for those convicted of drug felonies who are users. It’s the only felony in the state that results in this lifetime ban upon release.

State Sen. Megan Hunt, of Omaha, had worked on this bill in the past, although the most recent one was introduced by state Sen. Victor Rountree.

“I think it's really a barrier for these people who are trying to get by who are statistically more likely to struggle economically. And I think it's really unfair that this is the only crime that we do that for,” Hunt said.

Gov. Jim Pillen vetoed the bill, saying in his one-page veto letter the law would create “loopholes” and that individuals who distribute drugs should not be entitled to tax-payer-funded benefits.

State Sen. Kathleen Kauth of Omaha supported Pillen's decision. She works with individuals as they reenter the workforce and said a SNAP ban can act as a sort of motivator to encourage recently released individuals to contribute to society in the form of jobs.

"I'm very much a proponent of you make choices and choices have consequences. Nobody learns how to deal with the consequences of their action until there is actually a consequence that sticks," she said.

Kauth added it isn't fair for people who make bad choices to continue to be given money when others, who don't make those decisions, also need the food access.

"When you have someone who continuously makes bad choices, that money is finite. There's not an unlimited pot of gold," she said. "Recidivism is such a huge problem we're not helping anyone by not holding them responsible for the consequences of their actions."

Kauth said she would rather assist and support people in finding jobs, getting them training and signing them up for educational opportunities.

The bill failed to gain enough votes for an override.

Hunt attributed the failure of veto override to governor and lawmakers not understanding what the bill does.

“There's just kind of misinformation and ignorance around that kind of stuff, and also a lot of judgment,” she said. “We need lawmakers who share the goal of making sure Nebraska is a place where everybody can thrive, not a place where we keep sorting people into good and bad based on a subjective morality.”

Sarah Trook, a former state employee in Scottsbluff, worked to help people reenter the workforce after incarceration. She was able to earn trust with her clients by sharing the personal experience of her own felony drug conviction and reentry into society. She had called to inquire about SNAP and eventually gave up after learning she may not qualify.

“To be told that Nebraska basically doesn’t believe that you’re capable of bettering yourself, and they don’t believe that you deserve to eat was really, really hard for me,” she said. “The people of Nebraska, even those that oppose this bill, care very much about their communities and don’t really understand what this bill was about. They don’t really understand its impact.”

States can choose to follow the national guidelines for SNAP bans, but the majority of states have chosen to go a different way. National reports show Nebraska is only one of six states with a modified ban on SNAP and a complete ban on Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF). Nebraska is the only state with this specific modification. Meanwhile, 27 states opted completely out of the national ban on SNAP and TANF, while South Carolina is the only state upholding those national bans. The other 22 have some sort of modified ban of SNAP and TANF.

But the modification isn’t really any different from a complete ban, according to the SNAP deputy director for the Food Research & Action Center Gina Plata-Nino.

“Some states have said, ‘Wait, that doesn't work,” Plata-Nino said. “It actually increases recidivism.”

Nebraska was the fourth state to adopt Reentry 2030 goals, a national effort to reduce prison reentry rates by 2030. But since 2008, the state actually saw a 15% increase in recidivism. Plata-Nino said a lifetime ban on SNAP for felony drug convictions only adds to that rate.

“The whole thing of incarceration is you pay your dues, you have recovered, you are re entering society. How do we make sure that you don't go back? And this is completely anti that,” she added. “It really is not modified. Like, you're really banning many people.”

It was a hard conversation for Trook to have with her clients when they came to her without food access. Even though they were struggling with hunger, they couldn’t apply for help.

“It was devastating. It really does feel like Nebraska is saying that the only thing you can ever be is a criminal. That's all you'll ever be, and that’s the opposite of rehabilitation,” Trook said.

Kayla Tobey was one person who was denied SNAP after her release. When she was around 20, she was federally indicted with conspiracy to distribute. She gave birth to her first little girl while incarcerated. That little girl will be a senior this year.

Because of her charge from about 20 years ago, Tobey was unable to receive SNAP benefits, although her daughter was. Tobey clarified, one person’s SNAP eligibility isn’t enough to feed a small family.

“It makes me scared and angry,” she said. “You'd think that when I got out, I would have done my time, you know? When you get out, you don't get punished again and and not be able to get public assistance because of your crime. It doesn't make any sense to me.”

Data from the National Institute of Health shows about 91% of people released from prison and reentering society experience hunger.

Back in his Lincoln apartment, Olivares Martinez remembers a time when he would try to stretch out bananas and a bottle of water to last him a couple days.

“I don't know what tomorrow holds for me, and I don't know what tomorrow holds for all these folks that are going to be struggling, that are struggling every single day, that go to bed crying because they're hungry,” he said.

Olivares Martinez said he will not stop advocating for people in his same circumstances to have food access once they have completed their time in prison.

“I’ll be that thorn in people’s side saying people are hungry. When are you going to change this?” he added.

Lawmakers, like Hunt, who have pushed for this believe that one day the bill will pass, but it will take the right introducer and potentially a different governor.

Nebraska Public Media News interns Macy Byars and Andres Lopez contributed to this report.