Pubdate: Wed, 31 Mar 1999
Source: Indiana Statesman (Indiana State University)
Website: http://web.indstate.edu/statesman/
Contact:  Michele Holtkamp, Indiana Statesman

ISU FINANCIAL AID, PROFESSORS DON'T APPROVE OF NEW BAN

ISU Director of Financial Aid Norman Hayes isn't looking forward to
implementing the new financial aid mandates against students convicted
of possessing or selling drugs.

"Most financial aid administrators feel that this is unjust because
the students being affected by this are those in need of assistance,"
Hayes said. "If it is mandated, we will do it."

But he won't like it. And those working in the criminal justice system
in America probably won't either.

Nearly two-thirds of those in the federal system are incarcerated for
drug and alcohol offenses, said Melissa Benningfield, an instructor in
the ISU Criminology Department.

But the offenders won't be there forever, and they should have an
equal shot at a new life when they are released, Hayes said.

"We can't just throw people away, lock the door and throw away the
key," he said.

Offenders hope to go through the system, pay their debt to society and
be able to begin a new life.

"But after they are released, now the cards will still be stacked
against them," Benningfield said.

Convicted offenders are led to believe that everyone is against them
and society is set up to fail them, she said.

Hayes said that the people serving time in prisons are generally those
who are under-educated or uneducated. That education, Hayes said, can
serve as the next step in rehabilitation.

"We as a concerned society should support programs that are going to
rehabilitate those who are incarcerated, because they are going to
come back out," Hayes said.

A college education could do nothing but help former drug users,
Benningfield said.

So why has Congress passed this law?

Benningfield assumes that this provision is just part of America's
"so-called war on drugs." Lawmakers believe that banning convicted
drug users and sellers from financial aid is another way to deter drug
use by showing that drugs are bad, Benningfield said. But deterrence
doesn't work, she added.

The provision is scheduled to go into effect in the fall of 2000. In
fact, it was originally planned to begin in the fall of 1999 and has
been postponed for a year.

That is encouraging, Hayes said.

The next year will give the lawmakers time to work out a solution and
decide on the definition of a rehabilitation program.

It is that definition that scares people, Hayes said.

Benningfield believes in a working definition of rehabilitation- an
attempt to teach someone a skill or educate the person through the
punishment so that the offense doesn't happen again.

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