Senator Uses Farm Bill To Ban Some Ex-Convicts From Food Stamps For Life

[Mass]

Shame on Vitter, but also shame on every single Senator, Democratic or Republican, as nobody objected to this amendment.

Probably to be archived in the series "poor people do not vote" and neither do felons, so why should we care?

http://thinkprogress.org/economy/2013/05/23/2053351/senator-uses-farm-bill-to-ban-some-ex-convicts-from-food-stamps-for-life/?mobile=nc&utm_source=feedly

During Wednesday’s debate on the Farm Bill, the Senate unanimously agreed to ban certain ex-convicts from receiving food assistance for life.

Sen. David Vitter (R-LA) claimed his amendment would prevent “murderers, rapists, and pedophiles” from ever receiving food stamps through the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP). Under this amendment, anyone convicted for a violent crime or sexual assault will be shut out of the program for life, even if they served their time or committed the crime long ago. Their families will also suffer, as their share of SNAP benefits will exclude the convicted family member.



As Robert Greenstein of the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities notes, these sentences have historically been handed down to more minorities than white offenders:

Given incarceration patterns in the United States, the amendment would have a skewed racial impact. Poor elderly African Americans convicted of a single crime decades ago by segregated Southern juries would be among those hit. The amendment essentially says that rehabilitation doesn’t matter and violates basic norms of criminal justice.

So, thank you so much, senators.

More war on poor people...

[IrishAyes]

1. Sounds like it.

Believe me, I have little sympathy for people who commit violent crimes, but does anyone think ex-felons' increased hunger will make them safer to have in our midst?

And as you say, think about the racial inequities and people unjustly convicted. That's one of the main reasons I can't support the death penalty.

Well, I guess it was carried out on bin Laden and for that I'm actually grateful, but then he bragged about what he did and kept trying to do it again.