Let's Stop Starving Drug Offenders Back to Prison

To call this a side issue of the debate surrounding SNAP would be a misnomer, I was unaware that this policy was still in effect. Regardless as to whether one believes in prison as a means of reform, I do hold that once time has been served (including probation), an individual should have the means to be included in society (yes there are exceptions which should not need to be spelled out). But having the label of ex-con makes that difficult, how else are these individual's supposed to eat,,,

However, the drug felony ban, which renders untold numbers of Americans ineligible for SNAP, is no sneaky Republican plot. It came to us courtesy of President Clinton, who, true to his "wars" on both drugs and crime, signed off on the ban as part of his 1996 welfare "reform" law.

"Today," Clinton said upon signing, "we have a historic opportunity to make welfare what it was made to be: a second chance, not a way of life."

There's no question that this bill had a palpable way-of-life impact, though "opportunity" may be the wrong noun to describe a path toward desperate hunger. A recent Yale study found that ex-prisoners denied food stamps were "much more likely to be hungry" than those who could receive them. The ban disproportionately affects people of color and women, since they're disproportionately convicted of drug offenses and also more likely to seek benefits.

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Even if one isn't ruffled by the blatant cruelty of forcing other humans into starvation because they've used drugs, sold drugs, or been wrongfully convicted of either of those things, the SNAP drug felony ban doesn't pay: An ex-prisoner who can't get a job and can't afford food may well return to the activities that got them locked up in the first place, to survive. Often, that means selling drugs, perpetuating a long cycle of recidivism and re-offending.

Let's Stop Starving Drug Offenders Back to Prison