Senator David Vitter (R-LA), joined by several other Republicans, tried to prohibit people, who have ever been convicted of certain sexual offences, from receiving food stamps. Fortunately for our communities, they failed.
Today [Feb 4], the U.S. Senate passed a bipartisan farm bill conference agreement that effectively neutralizes an effort by Sen. David Vitter (R-La.) to ban food stamps for life for people with certain felony convictions.
In May, Senator Vitter offered an amendment to the farm bill that would have denied food assistance through SNAP, the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, for life to anyone ever convicted of certain violent offenses. The measure would have resulted in reduced SNAP benefits in households with people convicted of such offenses, affecting children as well as adults. The House later adopted a similar amendment to its farm bill.
About one in six of the 1.6 million people in state or federal prison has been convicted of an offense targeted by these amendments. Over time, the ban would have applied to more than a million people. Disparities in the criminal justice system mean African-Americans and Latinos would have been disproportionately affected.
The Sentencing Project joined a diverse group of civil rights, faith, labor, and criminal justice advocacy organizations in strongly opposing Senator Vitter’s counterproductive food stamp ban…
Inserted from <The Sentencing Project>
Hat Tip: CURE National
Realistically, the most important thing in dealing with offenders of this type is that they do not reoffend. The Vitter Amendment would have made that goal more difficult. First, people receiving food stamps are less likely to move without notifying authorities, making it easier for authorities to supervise them. Second, that availability of help, gives former offenders a stake in their communities, and with it, a greater incentive to stay crime-free.
Vitter’s motivation appears to have been purely political, a great irony, given his own sexual history.
Kudos to all who joined in defeating this measure.