Senate votes: felons can't get food stamps. Your thoughts?

If they are still in prison, then no, they already get fed.
If they are released, then this is just stupid. It just gives them more incentive to slide back into crime, and I suspect this is just another ploy to prop up the prison industry with more prisoners.

^^^ Agree. Bloody stupid. A damn good recipe for recidivism.

I’m with @ragingloli. It seems counterproductive IF the goal were to reduce the number of prisoners in the U.S., which it is not.

It is so difficult for people with even non-violent felonies to get jobs, and Americans with full-time jobs (or, ya know, multiple part time jobs, which is the new normal) still need food stamps to get by.

not even if they’re wearing pajamas?

pyjamas

Why not just give them a pass to go back to criminal activities? They can’t find jobs. How do we expect them to live?

@Mariah This is incredible. Has this really happened? Do you have a link?

@Espiritus_Corvus: Just because it passed in the Senate does not yet make it a law.

Here’s a link.

So the senate voted that the senate can’t get food stamps?

@jca I am well aware of how our system works.

@Mariah, this is for violent felons only. That is a much smaller population than felons in general.

Seems stupid, shortsighted, and doomed to failure.

The goal appears to be extended punishment for ex-felons. The result will be more theft and more violence. Why? Because felons can’t get jobs easily, and while they are looking for jobs, they still need to eat. If they can’t work, and can’t get food stamps, then what are they supposed to do?

It’s another sign of vindictiveness on the part of the republicans.

Is this really true? Felons now will no longer be eligible for food stamps? That sounds ridiculous to me. What do they think, that it will discourage people from criminal activity to begin with? Are they assuming criminals will think, if I get caught I can’t live on the dole anymore?

I remember when a friend of mine put out a warrant for her husband’s arrest because he was not paying child support. She called him and warned him, and his response was, “well, at leat I’ll get three square a day.” Ugh. Well, once he was in jail he changed his tune. I’m not sure why I tell that story, accept that it demonstrates that it is hard to know how people will think or react to these sorts of thing.

It seems to me someone just released from jail is going to need some help to get back on their feet and back into society or they will wind up right back in jail.

Wow that’s lame. When a felon finishes his sentence, that’s the whole point there. They are deemed ready to go back in society and live, like everyone else. If they need food stamps, I don’t understand why it should be denied to them.

Fuck. Now you commit a crime, go through the prison justice system (oxymoron if I ever heard one), do your time, get released, but are no longer able to eat.

What an idiotic idea. How horrible the human race is becoming.

@tinyfaery: Perhaps the human race has always had the capability of being horrible, but recently we have developed more sophisticated technologies for doing so, as well as more detached ideologies to justify our treatment of each other.

This really doesn’t offend me. If someone’s served his time and is struggling to return to society, should he starve?

Some years ago, I was involved in a “transitional housing” charity. The organization, which owned a small apartment building, intended to move homeless families to self-sufficiency. Unfortunately, the charity was run by a bunch of wealthy people who truly believed that “homeless” is the same as “houseless.” The maximum stay in an apartment was 1 year. The idea was that the organization could take someone off the streets, put a roof over his/her head for 12 months, and watch him/her magically join the middle class.

Of course, the charity was a dismal failure. The reasons for homelessness are complex—alcoholism, addiction, ignorance, mental illness, absent fathers, the fact that nobody in the U.S. can pay rent and support a family on minimum wage, etc.—and can’t be fixed by simplistic means. All the charity did was warehouse people briefly and return them to the streets.

Unless an ex-con had been middle-class or upper-class before his sentence, and unless his incarceration was brief, the story’s pretty much the same for someone leaving prison. Institutionalization is the antithesis of independence. Inmates become so conditioned to and dependent on institutional life, it’s unrealistic to believe that they can walk out the door and become productive members of society.

They need job training, counseling, and halfway houses where they can learn how to hold jobs and live within a community. Of course, the fabulous U.S., which is so good at tossing people into prison, doesn’t provide any such support. If all an ex-con can get is food stamps, please pass the hat and I’ll gladly chip in. Without any help at all, he’ll soon be back in prison.

That’s what happens when you have a senate, just like the bloody Romans…monumental fuck-ups.
Infamy, infamy, they all have it in for me!

True.

A coven of cackling witches…yawn.

What about the children of felons?

Criminals should be punished by the courts and once they have served their sentence they should not continue to be punished by Republican Senator David Vitter of Louisiana who proposed this bill. It is mean and vindictive.

Does the word “recidivism” mean anything to these senators? Sure, it’ll cut costs on food stamps, but giving food, shelter, medical care, and paying people to guard them costs more than just feeding them, so the only way this makes economic sense is if the senators are getting kickbacks from the for-profit prisons.

Either the senators are too stupid to be allowed the rights enjoyed by adults, or are too corrupt to enjoy the rights of free people; either way, they need to be put into custody.

It is the same thing with some states denying felons, even those who have finished their prison terms, the right to vote.
What you are telling the poor sods with that is that they are outcasts forever, that they are subhumans, will never be trusted again and that they will never even get the chance to redeem themselves, and then no one should be surprised if they give society a big fuck you and become criminals again.

The only thing that the current Senate seems capable of doing is advancing the cause of political demagoguery. And the author of the amendment, David DC Madam Scandal Vitter, is a grand master of the art of political demagoguery.

I notice that the right wants to punish everyone that isn’t in their party and race. The idea of not giving former felons food stamps is part of the mindset some of our citizens got from the Puritans. Too bad the Mayflower didn’t sink, the country would be much better for their absence.

I can understand why prisoners can’t vote or get food stamps. I don’t understand why they should be punished and refused the rights of a citizen after they fulfill their prison term.

@Ron_C I wondered about the demographic make-up of prisoners after reading your answer. I would have thought the majority of prisoners are white, even knowing that the percentage of black people in prison compared to total black population is higher than whites in prison compared to total white population. The statistics are staggering. I looked at them on this wikipedia page. I know black people and other minorities are more likely to be sentenced to prison than a white person, but the stats are too extreme to ignore. I might ask a question about it.

@JLeslie yes, I thought that too, that’s why I added the race remark. Much of the right wing agenda is involved with keeping non-whites on the sidelines. That is also why I am disgusted with the practice of permanently rescinding the right to vote after prison terms are fulfilled.

Another thing that works against “non-whites” is the private prison system. This is an obscene business. No one should profit by imprisoning and torturing people.

@Ron_C I just mentioned the private prison system this morning on my other Q. I think it is horrible. But, “non-whites” work against themselves also. It’s a multifaceted problem.