Contact Judiciary Committee on HB214

I've just sent the following letter to the members of the House Judiciary Committee regarding HB214, a bill that would allow those convicted of drug felonies to be eligible for food stamps and TANF when they get out of prison. Please take a moment and send one of your own or copy and paste mine if you like. Email addresses are below the letter. This bill is coming up in the Judiciary Committee tomorrow (Wednesday) so please write TODAY!

Dear Member of the House Judiciary Committee,

I am writing today to ask for your support of HB214, which would allow those convicted of felony drug charges, who have served their time in prison, to be eligible for food stamps and TANF. Currently, under federal law, those convicted of drug offenses are the only persons denied food assistance. Child molesters, murderers and rapists are eligible for food assistance upon release from prison but not someone whose crime involved taking a substance and not harming anyone else in the process.

When the laws keep people starving it raises the chances that they will resort to crime to in order to simply survive. If that happens they will go back to prison where it will cost taxpayers far more to house them for one year than it would have if we had enabled them to eat to begin with. This law also adversely affects children. Children have no control over what their parents might do, but under current law, they too, are denied food if their parents can't get state assistance while they struggle with reentry and readjustment to society after spending time in prison.

Please do the compassionate, humane, Christian thing and pass this bill.

Thank you for your time and consideration in this matter.

Loretta Nall

camjulward@aol.com
cengland1@hotmail.com,
jamie.ison@alhouse.org,
howard.sanderford@alhouse.org,
yusuf.salaam@alhouse.org,
spencer.collier@alhouse.org,
marcel.black@alhouse.org,
laura.hall@alhouse.org,
paul.demarco@alhouse.org,
priscilla.dunn@alhouse.org,
Tammy.Irons@alhouse.org,
marc.keahey@alhouse.org,
steve.mcmillan@alhouse.org,
charles.newton@alhouse.org,
john.robinson@alhouse.org