Thinking Clearly

Unfair Punishments

 By THE EDITORIAL BOARD - The NYTimes

 

 Congress embraced a destructive policy when it decreed in 1996 that people convicted of drug felonies would henceforth be banned for life from receiving food stamps or cash assistance unless they lived in a state that expressly opted out of the ban. 

 

The bans affected the country’s most vulnerable families, including women with children. And by denying welfare benefits to former drug addicts, the government makes it much harder for them to get access to residential treatment, which is sometimes required as a condition of release and is often paid for with welfare benefits.

A majority of states have either opted out of the bans or softened them in some way. But about a dozen states have adopted the welfare ban without modification, while others have preserved obstacles to cash assistance and food stamps, with unfortunate consequences. 

  
A new study involving researchers at the Yale University School of Medicine suggests that, by forcing former offenders and their families to go hungry, the ban on food stamps could well be pushing desperate young mothers to prostitution. This, in turn, increases the risk of exposure to H.I.V.