Page 43 - Impact: Collected Essays on the Threat of Economic Inequality

who are incarcerated for the drug offenses that render them actually or potentially ineligible for these benefits in many states . As of December 31, 2012, 24 .6 percent of women in state prison were incarcerated for a drug- related offense, compared to 15 .4 percent of men .24 On this same date, Blacks and Latinos were slightly over 57 percent of individuals incarcerated for drug offenses—the percentages were 37 .7 percent and 19 .5 percent, respectively—compared to 30 .8 percent of Whites .25
Also, Congress recently expanded the categories of convictions that exclude individuals from SNAP benefits . In 2014, Congress enacted the Agricultural Act of 2014 . Part of the Act amended the Food and Nutrition Act of 2008 by disqualifying “[c]ertain [c]onvicted [f ]elons” from these benefits .26 An individual convicted at the federal level of aggravated sexual abuse, murder, sexual exploitation, and other abuse of children, or of any state offense that the Attorney General determines to be “substantially similar to” these offenses, or of any federal or state offense involving sexual assault “as defined in 40002(a) of the Violence Against Women Act of 1994” cannot receive SNAP benefits, but only if he or she is not compliant with his or her sentence terms or is fleeing prosecution or custody for a felony offense under the applicable state’s law or, for New Jersey, a high misdemeanor offense .27
b. Access to Higher Education
President Johnson signed the Higher Education Act of 1965 into law to, in part, “assist[] the people of the United States in the solution of community problems such as housing, poverty, government, recreation, employment, youth opportunities, transportation, health and land use .”28 This Act created various forms of student financial aid, including Pell grants .29
Prior to 1994, prisoners used Pell Grants to access higher education through college and graduate school courses . However, in 1994, President Clinton signed the Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act, an expansive omnibus bill with a provision that amended the Higher Education Act of 1965 by eliminating these grants for individuals incarcerated in state and federal prisons .30
Four years later, Congress, again focusing on drug offenses and as part of the reauthorization of the Higher Education Act of 1965, declared that individuals were not eligible to receive federal student financial aid (“grant, loan or work assistance”) if they were convicted of any felony or misdemeanor drug offense .31 The ban applied to prospective students, students who were convicted while receiving aid, and students who were convicted but not receiving aid . A
24 prisoners in 2013, supra note 6, at 15, tbl.13.
25 Id. at 16, tbl. 14.
26 Agricultural Act of 2014, Pub. L. No. 113-179, § 4008, 128 Stat. 649, 788.
27 Id. § 4008(a).
28 The Higher Education Act of 1965, Pub. L. No. 89-329, § 101, 79 Stat. 1219, 1219.
29 Title IV of the Higher Education Act of 1965, Pub. L. No. 89-329, §§ 401-409 (codified as amended at 20 U.S.C. § 1070a).
30 Pub. L. No. 103-222 § 20411, 108 Stat. 1796, 1828 (codified as amended at 20 U.S.C. § 1070a(b)(6)). Two
years earlier, Congress amended the Higher Education Act to exclude from the Pell Grant Program individuals sentenced to life without parole or to death. Higher Education Act Amendments of 1992, Pub. L. No. 102-325 § 305, 106 Stat. 448, 481.
31 Higher Education Amendments of 1998, Pub. L. No. 105-244, § 483(f)(1), 112 Stat. 1581, 1735.
Criminal Justice Reform
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