From The Sentencing Project:
This commentary was originally published in The Hill.
Mississippi Gov. Phil Bryant has signed criminal justice reform legislation that will ease reentry for people returning home from prison. Among the most notable elements of the new law is an opt out of a 23-year-old federal ban on food stamps and financial assistance for people with felony drug convictions. The change will help protect the many people who confront hunger and poverty upon their release from prison.
Mississippi is the latest state to amend or rescind this cruel federal policy, which emerged when the political consensus of the 1990s supported punitive and racially charged approaches to both drugs and poverty.
President Bill Clinton signed legislation in 1996 that significantly restricted access to the social safety net through work and eligibility requirements for financial assistance, and it established a lifetime ban on benefits through the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) and Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) for anyone convicted of a felony drug offense. The changes followed years of congressional actions to establish harsh mandatory minimums for federal drug offenses and incentivize states to follow its lead in enacting long sentences. Unfair perceptions about people who use drugs, particularly crack cocaine, powered the debate.
While the law permits states to opt out of the ban, and ones as diverse as Arkansas, California, Maine and Wyoming have already done so, 30 states still maintain either a lifetime or modified ban on SNAP, TANF or both. Continue reading >>>
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