To: President Donald Trump and The United States Senate
Senate Democrats want to take food stamps away from the deserving
Please contact your Senator to say this should not happen:
from http://www.offthechartsblog.org/senator-vitter-offersand-senate-democrats-accept-stunning-amendment-with-racially-tinged-impacts/
In today’s Senate debate on the farm bill, Senator David Vitter offered — and Senate Democrats accepted — an amendment that would increase hardship and will likely have strongly racially discriminatory effects.
The amendment would bar from SNAP (food stamps), for life, anyone who was ever convicted of one of a specified list of violent crimes at any time — even if they committed the crime decades ago in their youth and have served their sentence, paid their debt to society, and been a good citizen ever since. In addition, the amendment would mean lower SNAP benefits for their children and other family members.
So, a young man who was convicted of a single crime at age 19 who then reforms and is now elderly, poor, and raising grandchildren would be thrown off SNAP, and his grandchildren’s benefits would be cut.
Given incarceration patterns in the United States, the amendment would have a skewed racial impact. Poor elderly African Americans convicted of a single crime decades ago by segregated Southern juries would be among those hit.
The amendment essentially says that rehabilitation doesn’t matter and violates basic norms of criminal justice.
from http://www.offthechartsblog.org/senator-vitter-offersand-senate-democrats-accept-stunning-amendment-with-racially-tinged-impacts/
In today’s Senate debate on the farm bill, Senator David Vitter offered — and Senate Democrats accepted — an amendment that would increase hardship and will likely have strongly racially discriminatory effects.
The amendment would bar from SNAP (food stamps), for life, anyone who was ever convicted of one of a specified list of violent crimes at any time — even if they committed the crime decades ago in their youth and have served their sentence, paid their debt to society, and been a good citizen ever since. In addition, the amendment would mean lower SNAP benefits for their children and other family members.
So, a young man who was convicted of a single crime at age 19 who then reforms and is now elderly, poor, and raising grandchildren would be thrown off SNAP, and his grandchildren’s benefits would be cut.
Given incarceration patterns in the United States, the amendment would have a skewed racial impact. Poor elderly African Americans convicted of a single crime decades ago by segregated Southern juries would be among those hit.
The amendment essentially says that rehabilitation doesn’t matter and violates basic norms of criminal justice.
Why is this important?
Senate Democrats accepted — an amendment to the Farm Bill that will dey food stamps to those who have managed to pull their lives together after making a mistake-- it will deny food stamps to anyone EVER convicted of a serious felony.