Page 42 - Impact: Collected Essays on the Threat of Economic Inequality

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rather policies, practices, attitudes, feelings, and biases . They include the policies and practices of employers and landlords to exclude individuals with criminal records from their businesses and dwellings .13
a. Food Stamps—The Supplemental Nutritional Assistance Program
The Food Stamp Act of 1964 was designed to provide a way for individuals and families to survive, specifically “to provide for improved levels of nutrition among low-income households.”14 To meet this need, the Act established food stamps, which are now known as Supplemental Nutritional Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits . However, in 1996, still in the midst of the “war on drugs” and “tough on crime” movements, Congress passed, and President Clinton signed into law, the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act .15 One component of this Act makes individuals convicted of any federal or state drug conviction ineligible to receive these benefits .16 This ban extends to benefits from a separate program, Temporary Assistance to Needy Families (TANF), which comprises cash benefits .17
The statute gives states the option to adopt the ban in full, in part, or not at all . Soon after the law’s passage, several states enforced these bans in full . In recent years, however, several states have moved away from full enforcement . The majority of states, though, continue to enforce both the SNAP and TANF bans partially or, to a lesser extent, fully .18 States enforce the bans partially by conditioning the benefits in a variety of ways, such as requiring recipients to enter drug rehabilitation programs or pass drug tests .
The Sentencing Project has shown that these bans overwhelming fall on women and, particularly, Black and Latina women .19 Women are nearly twice as likely as men to receive SNAP benefits .20 According to a recent Pew Research Center survey, nearly 40 percent of Black women have received SNAP benefits at some point in their lives, compared to 21 percent of Black men .21 Also, 31 percent and 14 percent of Latino women and men received SNAP benefits, 22 respectively, compared to 19 percent of White women and 11 percent of White men .23
As the percentages of women and individuals of color who receive SNAP benefits sometime in their lives are higher than Whites, so too are the percentages of women and individuals of color
13 For a discussion of informal consequences, see Wayne A. Logan, Informal Collateral Consequences, 88 wash. l. rev. 1103 (2013).
14 The Food Stamp Act of 1964, Pub. L. No. 88-525, 78 Stat. 703.
15 Personal Responsibility & Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act of 1996, Pub. L. No. 104-193, 110 Stat. 2105.
16 21 U.S.C. § 862(a)(2).
17 Id. § 862(a)(1).
18 See The senTencing proJecT, a lifeTime of punishmenT: The impacT of The felony drug Ban on welfare BenefiTs 4 (2013), available at http://sentencingproject.org/doc/publications/cc_A%20Lifetime%20of%20Punishment.pdf (as of 2013, thirty-four states enforced the SNAP ban in full or in part, and thirty-seven states did the same with TANF benefits).
19 Id. at 4.
20 rich morin, pew research cTr., The poliTics and demographics of food sTamp recipienTs (2013), available at http://
www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2013/07/12/the-politics-and-demographics-of-food-stamp-recipients/.
21 Id.
22 Id.
23 Id.
Impact: Collected Essays on the Threat of Economic Inequality