Pubdate: Mon, 09 Feb 2004
Source: Spokesman-Review (WA)
Copyright: 2004 The Spokesman-Review
Contact:  http://www.spokesmanreview.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/417
Author: Richard Roesler, Staff writer
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/topics/food+stamps

BILL WOULD LET DRUG FELONS GET FOOD STAMPS

Looking for a Second Chance

Dawn Kortness, 31, a felon with substance abuse in her past, is trying
to get food-stamp benefits. A bill in the Legislature would reverse
existing law and allow felons to get benefits.

OLYMPIA - Eighteen months after finishing a three-month jail term for
drug charges, Dawn Kortness has no health insurance, no home of her
own, no job and no prospects.

She stays with relatives and applies for jobs. Of 40 applications --
fast-food restaurants, convenience stores, a laundry, a cabinetmaker,
bingo hall and others -- she's only landed one interview. As soon as
she mentions her felony conviction, the door closes.

She's even tried attaching her graduation certificate from an
intensive anti-drug program and that just made things worse.

"I'm an excellent worker," she said. "I show up, I learn fast, I
listen to rules. I just can't get a chance."

Some state lawmakers want to throw a taxpayer-funded lifeline to
people like Kortness. They want to overturn the state's lifetime ban
on giving food stamps to people convicted of a drug felony.

"You can be a child molester, a murderer, a rapist or a terrorist (and
still qualify for food stamps when released), but you can't be a drug
felon," said Linda Stone, Eastern Washington Director of the
Children's Alliance, an advocacy group.

"It's appalling that this group of people have been singled out and
denied a basic benefit to get back on their feet."

The ban wasn't Washington's idea. It was a last-minute provision that
Congress included in 1996 welfare reform legislation. (The federal
government pays for all food stamps, and picks up half the state's
cost in running the program.)

Under the ban, kids in a home can still qualify for food stamps, but a
parent who's a drug felon cannot. So the family's left trying to
stretch an already meager food budget, Stone said.

Congress allows states to opt out of the ban, and 11 have. In
Washington state, liberal Democrats in the House of Representatives
have twice tried to overturn the ban. This year, no one testified
against the bill, but it died anyway. Some lawmakers disliked it on
moral grounds, others apparently worried about seeing "food stamps for
felons" attack ads this fall from their political foes.

In a surprise twist, however, several conservative Republicans have
joined liberal Democrats to push the issue in the Senate. The prime
sponsor, Sen. Dale Brandland, R-Bellingham, is a former county
sheriff. Local sponsors of Senate Bill 6411 include Spokane Republican
Larry Sheahan and Senate Minority Leader Lisa Brown, D-Spokane. In
early February, a Senate committee unanimously voted to support the
bill.

"Instead of looking at it as a giveaway, look at what happens if they
don't get fed," said Rep. Eric Pettigrew, D-Seattle, the author of the
House version. "We can lock people up. Punishment is appropriate. But
once they get out of prison, if they can't feed their families, we're
kind of sending them down the same path."

Some backers make a purely financial argument for the change: the
policy has left 30,000 Washingtonians ineligible for food stamps since
1997. That adds up to millions of federal dollars that aren't going to
local grocers, said Bill Monto, with Washington Citizen Action.

In Spokane, Kortness' mom has tried for more than a year to convince
state and federal officials to change the policy. She took Kortness to
apply for food stamps, only to be turned away by state caseworkers.
She's faxed letters to President Bush and U.S. Rep. George Nethercutt,
only to be referred back to state officials.

"Nobody wanted to do anything," said the mother, Carol Miles. "They
said their hands were tied."

Unable to contribute to the household, even by buying some food, her
daughter feels helpless and useless, she said. The two women
periodically pile into Miles' Geo Metro to apply for more jobs for
Kortness, but the answer's always the same: silence.

"The ones that want to change and better their lives, we need to give
them a chance," said Miles. "They're still our people."
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MAP posted-by: Richard Lake