Food Stamp Program and Inmates – Iowa

Food-stamp aid collected by inmates costs state, By Clark Kauffman, February 8, 2010, Des Moines Register: “Thirty percent of the inmates in the Polk County Jail last spring were illegally collecting food-stamp benefits, a state investigation shows. Federal regulations prohibit people who have been jailed for 30 days or more from collecting food-stamp benefits while incarcerated. But Iowa’s food-stamp program, which is administered by the state’s Department of Human Services, doesn’t routinely check on recipients’ compliance with that restriction. As a result, thousands of food-stamp beneficiaries are believed to be fraudulently collecting assistance while in jail. The benefits can only be accessed by using an electronic benefits transfer card – better known as an EBT card – which is similar to a bank debit card. Some inmates have given their EBT cards to others, while some have sold their cards in return for cash they can spend while in jail…”