Trading Sex for a "F--cking Happy Meal?" Mom Can't Get Food Stamps After Drug Offense, Resorts to Prostitution to Feed her Kids


Link: http://www.alternet.org/trading-sex-f-cking-happy-meal-mom-cant-get-food-stamps-after-drug-offense-resorts-prostitution-feed?page=0%2C1





If she’d committed murder, Carla could have gotten assistance to feed her children. But because the crime she committed was related to drugs, she can't.
December 21, 2012


Carla walked into my office with despair in her eyes. I was surprised. Carla has been doing well in her four months out of prison; she got off drugs, regained custody of her kids, and even enrolled in a local community college.
Without much prodding she admitted to me that she had retuned to prostitution: “I am putting myself at risk for HIV to get my kids a f---ing happy meal.”


Despite looking high and low for a job, Carla explained, she was still unemployed. Most entry-level jobs felt out of reach with her drug record, but what’s worse, even the state wasn’t willing to throw her a temporary life preserver.
You see, Carla is from one of the 32 states in the country that ban anyone convicted of a drug felony from collecting food stamps. With the release of the Global Burden of Disease Study last week, it bears looking at how we are perpetuating burdens among the most vulnerable Americans with our outdated laws.
If she’d committed rape or murder, Carla could have gotten assistance to feed herself and her children, but because the crime she committed was a drug felony, Carla joined the hundreds of thousands of drug felons who are not eligible.
The 1996 passage of the Welfare Reform Act was supposedly implemented to prevent drug addicts from selling their food stamps for drugs. But that concern is virtually unwarranted today. Unlike old food-stamp coupons, today’s food stamps are distributed electronically, which makes selling or trading them quite difficult.
Nonetheless, the law persists. According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, nine states have a lifetime ban for food-stamp eligibly for people convicted of drug felonies. Twenty-three states have a partial ban, such as permitting eligibility for persons convicted of drug possession but not sale, or for persons enrolled in drug treatment programs.
Denying food stamp benefits to people convicted of drug offenses is an excessive and ineffective crime control strategy. The policy increases an individual’s risk of returning to prison by making it more difficult for people to survive after they get out, slowing or possibly even preventing their reintegration into society. People without the financial cushion necessary to get through the initial period of job searching and re-establishing a life have little choice but to turn to illegal means to make ends meet.
What’s more, the food-stamp ban is a law that works against good public health policy. As a doctor who cares predominantly for people who are released from prison, I see the damaging consequences of this ban on food stamps. I have seen patients of mine with diabetes go without food and end up hospitalized with low blood sugar, and still others with HIV skip their antiretrovirals because they don’t have food to take with their pills. Not having access to food is associated with bad health outcomes including worsening diabetes, HIV, depression. Young children face anemia, diabetes, and depression.
Women with children are especially affected. It’s estimated that 70,000 women and their children are banned from obtaining food stamps. This means mothers who are simply trying to feed themselves and their children, and who are trying to get back on their feet after serving their time, are banned from receiving the money to pay for the basics necessary to survive. Meanwhile, 46 million others, including college graduates and PhDs with far more resources, can receive food aid.
No other criminal conviction results in such a ban—not arson, not rape, not even murder.
Carla was arrested at 20 for selling marijuana. At the time, she had also been making money working for her “boyfriend” as a sex worker. Her boyfriend was also arrested for robbery. He could qualify for food stamps upon release. But not Carla. She continues to pay for selling marijuana— a drug which two states have now voted to legalize outright—and the price is health risks for herself and for her children.


It is time we end the food-stamp ban in all 32 states where this injustice persists and resurrect Representatives Rosa DeLauro and Barbara Lee’s Food Assistance to Improve Reintegration bill. Punishing people by denying access to food is not only terrible policy; it threatens overall public health. It does nothing to fight addiction or drug use, nor does it end up saving taxpayers money.
And beyond all that, at just 23, Carla deserves a second chance, and her kids deserve a first.

No I don't think it's fair. People make mistakes. She was 20 years old and it wasn't even a hard drug.

And IMO it's smurfed up that rapists and murderers are still eligible, but someone who smokes a little weed is not. Personally, I don't smoke but I don't see much to anything wrong with weed.

She should still be able to collect for her kids just not herself  

Absolutely not fair!!

ETA:

There could be some limitations, or possible guidelines added if she was to get them.. like if convicted of drug charges must submit to random drug testing until off probation/parole.. something along those lines.

I don't think it's unfair that she's being punished for her crime. She was an adult when she chose to commit the crime and there are consequences to her actions. If she wanted a job, she should have steered clear of breaking the law in her state. That being said, it's unfair that she's not being punished in the same manner as rapists and murderers. If you do one thing for one criminal, do it for all.

It isn't fair at all and really smurfing stupid that people are continually penalized for their criminal records from years ago. How the smurf does society expect ex-cons to turn their lives around when the system and society continues to say "you aren't good enough, go on!"

Quoting Evan My Heaven:" I don't think it's unfair that she's being punished for her crime. She was an adult when she chose to ... [snip!] ... that she's not being punished in the same manner as rapists and murderers. If you do one thing for one criminal, do it for all."

And people wonder why criminals reoffend  

Quoting Rabbit™:" It isn't fair at all and really smurfing stupid that people are continually penalized for their criminal ... [snip!] ... society expect ex-cons to turn their lives around when the system and society continues to say "you aren't good enough, go on!""

I agree with this.
She should at least be getting aid for her kids. They definitely shouldn't be the ones being punished.
I don't buy into the whole "I've looked everywhere and can't find a job" though. There are ALWAYS places hiring, as long as you're willing to do the work.

Quoting Ur Local Frnt Desk Clrk:" Absolutely not fair!! ETA: There could be some limitations, or possible guidelines added if she was ... [snip!] ... like if convicted of drug charges must submit to random drug testing until off probation/parole.. something along those lines. "

I agree, that sounds a lot better than just banning her from food stamps period.

Whoever the hell wrote this doesn't know WTF they are talking about. She's still able to get foodstamps for her children, just not for herself.   IE. she can get foodstamps but it will be at a reduced rate.

Quoting MommyToWesley:" I agree with this. She should at least be getting aid for her kids. They definitely shouldn't be the ... [snip!] ... "I've looked everywhere and can't find a job" though. There are ALWAYS places hiring, as long as you're willing to do the work."

There ARE always places hiring, but they don't all want convicted felons. Smurf, where I live you can't even work at a smurfing McDonald's with a record.

Quoting Rabbit™:" It isn't fair at all and really smurfing stupid that people are continually penalized for their criminal ... [snip!] ... society expect ex-cons to turn their lives around when the system and society continues to say "you aren't good enough, go on!""

I agree. I HATE that criminal records are continuously held against people. How is ANYONE supposed to do better if nobody will even hire them? People are forced to do illegal smurf to survive when nobody will hire them...they say jail is a form of rehabilitation, but I don't see how they are rehabilitating them. They are just setting them up for failure.

Quoting MommyToWesley:" I agree with this. She should at least be getting aid for her kids. They definitely shouldn't be the ... [snip!] ... "I've looked everywhere and can't find a job" though. There are ALWAYS places hiring, as long as you're willing to do the work."

Yea, that is true for people who don't have a record but to the people who do, there is a VERY slim chance even fast food will hire them.

Quoting MommyToWesley:" I agree with this. She should at least be getting aid for her kids. They definitely shouldn't be the ... [snip!] ... "I've looked everywhere and can't find a job" though. There are ALWAYS places hiring, as long as you're willing to do the work."

Well that's just the thing. My mom is going through this same thing in Missouri for weed. She served I think 90 days in jail? She has to work with a company that finds parolees jobs. Just because you turn in applications and are willing to do the work, does not mean you get hired. It is VERY VERY hard for anybody with a drug offense to find a job. That's why the United States has one of the largest recidivism rates in the world as far as industrialized nations go. We do not give our criminals second chances at anything. We don't give them jobs or assistance. We don't help them turn their lives around and then say "see told you so" when they end up back in trouble for doing illegal things to make a living. It's basic sociology class.

Quoting Rabbit™:" There ARE always places hiring, but they don't all want convicted felons. Smurf, where I live you can't even work at a smurfing McDonald's with a record."

Seriously??     I didn't know that. That makes absolutely no sense. Like you said earlier, how does society expect criminals to be able to rehabilitate when you stack every possible odd against him/her?