Medicaid Reentry Act Introduced in the House

Washington, D.C. - October 18, 2017 (The Ponder News) -- Last week, Rep. Paul Tonko (D-NY) introduced H.R. 4005, the Medicaid Reentry Act, a bill that would provide states with the flexibility to restart Medicaid coverage for eligible incarcerated individuals up to 30 days prior to their release.

Rep. Paul Tonko (D-NY): “More Americans died of an overdose last year than were lost at the peak of the HIV/AIDS crisis. This is a national emergency that demands immediate action. As we continue to fight the spread or our nation’s deadly opioid epidemic, expanding Medicaid access to individuals preparing to transition back from incarceration to civilian life is more than a practical and overdue step. It will save lives and help countless families and communities come back from the brink and begin to heal in earnest.”

Recent research indicates that individuals who are released back into the community post-incarceration are roughly eight times more likely to die of an overdose in the first two weeks post-release compared to other times. The risk of overdose is elevated during this period due to reduced physiological tolerance for opioids among the incarcerated population, a lack of effective addiction treatment options while incarcerated and poor care transitions back into the community. Allowing states to restart Medicaid benefits prior to release will dovetail with innovative reentry programs already being implemented in communities across the country and would give individuals reentering society a fighting chance to live a healthier, drug-free life.

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Kamala Harris and Rand Paul Spearhead Senate Bail Reform Effort

Senators Kamala Harris (D-CA) and Rand Paul (R-KY) introduced legislation to reform the country’s money bail system. The proposal – the first of its kind in the U.S. Senate – would provide grants to states to reform their bail system.

“We have a mass incarceration problem in this country, and it starts with our broken bail system,” said Michael Collins, Deputy Director of the Drug Policy Alliance’s Office of National Affairs. “There are people held in jail without trial because they do not have the financial means to post bail. Many are charged with drug offenses, and are casualties of the racist war on drugs.”

The Harris-Paul bill would provide funds for states to replace money bail with pretrial assessments, provide for the presumption of release, ensure counsel, and guarantee a speedy trial for defendants.

Currently, around 60 percent of individuals in jail in the U.S. are pretrial detainees who have not been convicted of any crime. Such a system contradicts the ethos of “innocent until proven guilty,” and has an adverse impact on low-income families and communities of color. While some states have taken steps to reform their criminal justice system, more needs to be done.

Recently, New Jersey’s historic bail reform law has been the focus of national attention as other states grapple with reforming their broken bail systems. The Drug Policy Alliance led the campaign that overhauled New Jersey’s system and the reform resulted in cutting the state jail population by a third. The reform changed the system by 1) declaring non-monetary pretrial release the default option for the majority of defendants; (2) establishing a pretrial services agency in each county to monitor low-risk individuals who are released pending trial; (3) mandating the use of a validated risk assessment tool when evaluating individuals for release; (4) permitting the detention of truly dangerous individuals; and (5) guaranteeing timelines for speedy trial for those who are detained.