SentencingProject

The U.S. Senate, the world's greatest deliberative body, deliberated only two minutes before voting to deny food stamps and welfare benefits to individuals convicted of felony drug possession.  Although the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act (PRWORA) was enacted in 1996 on a neutral basis, over time, it has had a disparate effect on women, on African Americans and on Hispanics who are convicted of felony drug charges at much higher rates than white men are.

At the time, Sen. Phil Gramm (R., Texas), who sponsored the ban amendment to the legislation, said: "If we are serious about the drug laws, we ought not give people welfare benefits who are violating the nation's drug laws.”

Gramm's amendment was a product of the times, part of the war on drugs, according to A Lifetime of Punishment: The Impact of the Felony Drug Ban on Welfare Benefits, a new report from The Sentencing Project.  The war on drugs is now considered by many to be a failure that has led to high rates of arrest and convictions of black men, Hispanics and now women,

Marc Mauer, executive director of The Sentencing Project, described Gramm's amendment "as a feel-good provision in the bill."  He said the brevity of the debate shows how little the Senate cared about those affected by the policy. It also shows that U.S. Senators viewed only welfare recipients as drug users. Most surprising of all, the bill's ban did not apply to convicted armed robbers or rapists.

Although PRWORA banned the receipt of welfare (Temporary Assistance to Needy Families) and food stamps (Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program) for individuals convicted of felony drug offenses in all states, the law gave states discretion to opt out. By 2001, eight states and the District of Columbia had entirely opted out of the ban, and 20 states had modified the ban.

But in 12 states-- Alabama, Arkansas, Delaware, Georgia, Illinois, Missouri, Mississippi, Nebraska, South Carolina, South Dakota, Texas and West Virginia--180,000 women, many whom are mothers, are denied welfare benefits because of the law.

"Given that TANF benefits are quite modest to begin with, a reduction of this size creates substantial additional hardship for such families," the report stated. "While the TANF ban does not target any demographic groups specifically, the dynamics of social class and the accompanying disparate racial effects of criminal justice policy and practice combine to produce highly disparate effects on women, children and communities of color. "