Did you know? Drug offenders can’t collect food stamps
A little-known law excludes one group of ex-cons from food and cash subsidies.
Based on a federal welfare law passed in 1996, anyone convicted of a drug-related felony is banned for life from receiving food stamps or cash assistance. All ex-cons who have been found guilty of selling, using or possessing drugs are unilaterally blocked by the law, including pregnant women, those who now abstain from drugs, and former inmates with successful job histories.
The law is exclusive to drug felons — the same ban does not apply to other offenders, including those convicted of first-degree murder.
The law is a little-known provision tucked into Section 115 of the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Act of 1996, a bill popularly known as welfare reform legislation. The one loophole is that states can opt out of the ban or enact laws to modify it. Many states have opted out or sanctioned modifications, but the law remains on the books in its complete, original form in about a dozen states.
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A study to be published in the next issue of the journal “AIDS Education and Prevention” explains how forcing former offenders and their families to go hungry may be pushing desperate young mothers to prostitution, an editorial in the “New York Times” noted yesterday. The study, conducted by Yale University School of Medicine, covered 110 newly released inmates, including about a third who had minor children at home and more than a third living on the streets.
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Researchers found that ninety percent of the subjects were uncertain how they were going to feed themselves and their families — and noted that people who are hungry are more likely to engage in risky behaviors such as exchanging sex for money, said the “Times.”
Is the law fair and appropriate?
Supporters of the ban include some who cite the significant budgetary impact and inefficiencies of food subsidies provided by the USDA’s food stamp program, known officially as the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program. Opponents [pdf] say the drug felons have paid their debt to society and that the potential economic implications for states (eg, subsequent incarcerations, foster care, child welfare, and healthcare aid for families impacted by AIDS) are matched by undue emotional and economic hardship for ex-cons and their families.
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