Ending Hunger in America, 2014 Hunger Report Full Report | Page 99

CHAPTER 3
Project, a research and advocacy group that promotes reforms in sentencing policy. See
Figure 3.1. “In 2007, 1.7 million children had a parent in prison on any given day.” 3
In several states, the law prohibits people convicted of certain categories of crimes from
receiving public benefits. People convicted of drug-related crimes are hit with restrictions
that affect their employment, housing, education, military service, driver’s licenses, child
custody, voting rights, nutrition assistance, and more.4 In its zeal to “get tough” on drugs,
and without regard to the inequities of the criminal justice system, Congress in 1996 enacted
a lifetime ban on food stamp eligibility for ex-drug offenders. There
is a similar lifetime ban on eligibility for Temporary Assistance for
Needy Families (TANF), a program
that mainly serves families headed
by single mothers. Little research
exists on the relationship between
recidivism rates and the stress
experienced by parents trying to
feed their children. But TJ and
other men in the HELP Program
for returning citizens in Cincinnati
admit to doing whatever necessary
to make sure their children don’t
go hungry.
Most states have either eliminated the ban on SNAP eligibility
or changed it to a partial ban—for
example, in some states it applies
to people convicted of distributing or manufacturing drugs but not to those convicted of possession only.5 Ten states continue to ban all drug-related ex-offenders from SNAP. See Figure
3.2. Underscoring the harm done by the ban, a report released in 2013 in the journal AIDS
Education and Prevention studied its implications in Texas, California, and Connecticut. Texas
has a full ban, California a partial ban, and Connecticut no ban. The results indicated that
returning citizens “who did not eat for an entire day were more likely to live in a state with
a SNAP food benefit ban compared to a state without a SNAP food benefit ban.”6 Moreover,
the study provided evidence that those who’d gone longer without food were more likely to
engage in risky behaviors such as exchanging sex for money, thus increasing their risk of
exposure to HIV.

Nearly two-thirds of working-age adults who
experience consistent poverty—more than
36 months of poverty during a 48-month period—
have one or more disabilities.3

The poverty rate of

Joe Molieri/Bread for the World

Dominic Duren, assistant
director of the HELP
Program, pauses for a photo
with his son Dominic Jr. in
the basement of St. Francis
De Sales in Cincinnati, Ohio.

women over the age of 65
is approximately

twice the rate

for men over 65.4

www.bread.org/institute?

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