If rehabilitation is the point of our justice system, government agencies shouldn’t punish people who’ve paid their debt, and who are trying to do the right thing.

Altimont owns Carmen’s Corner Store in Hagerstown, Maryland, a community where around 20 percent of people rely on the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) to buy their groceries. But a federal agency decided that Altimont can never accept SNAP as a form of payment at Carmen’s.

That decision isn’t because Altimont has done anything wrong as a business owner, but rather because of unrelated crimes from 2004, for which he’s already served his time.

The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) permanently bans anyone with drug, alcohol, tobacco, or firearms convictions from participating in the SNAP program—a harsher punishment than the agency dishes out to those who have actually defrauded the program. That’s not just irrational, it’s also unconstitutional, which is why Altimont teamed up with our organization, the Institute for Justice (IJ), to file a federal lawsuit against the agency on Tuesday.

  • Osirus@sh.itjust.works
    126·
    1 year ago

    Poverty is impossible to escape?!?! You are such a shitty enabler. Wow man. You know how you escape poverty? Staying in school, trying and working. More than 1 job sometimes when it requires it. What a load of BS.

    • mycroft@lemmy.world
      18·
      1 year ago

      Never had a parking ticket spiral eh?

      $85 + $50 dollar waiver fee if you pay and just say you’re guilty. OOOOR

      $85 fee if you go to court and lose.

      Only $95 in the bank.

      Well shit, $50 bucks lets you pay rent, so you take the time. But you have to get exacty $10 of gas, you get to the courtroom, do your best and lose. You gotta pay $85 dollars, and so you do – except the bank fucked you when you went to got gas, they haven’t processes that yet, and the courtroom requires a mandatory $2.95 “convenience fee” so they don’t have to take a check… So you pay, and the bank processes your payments dutifully, smallest to largest, but now you’re in the hole for $105.

      Rent is still coming next week, and you’re lucky it’s only $300 cause you share a 3 bedroom and sleep on the couch.

      To make the $300 dollars you gotta work 2 jobs, because Wallmart makes sure you don’t get the full 35 hours each week to qualify for benefits, and McDonalds only calls you to pick up the teenagers shifts on Fridays.

      But wait, you’re -105 in the bank, so you gotta go call up a bunch of people you know and bug everyone at McDonalds to see if you can cover their shifts. Finally you manage to scrape together 55 hours to pay your rent… but you get dinged on your mobile bill in the middle of that week, and you’re out another 40 dollars. You can’t cancel the mobile phone since it’s your only phone, and hell entertainment, you can’t afford a TV or a Netflix plan, that shit’s for the rich. You can’t even afford to eat where you work…

      Finally you get home, after working 7 days of 8 hour shifts you managed to scrape together (4 at wallymart and 3 at mcdonalds) and your bank account is empty, you don’t have any money for food, and your snap benefits keep getting denied because you live in a red state…

      So you watch youtube shorts, and tiktok doom scroll and try and forget you’re hungry…

      (I hope my landlord will let me give them 260 until I can cover the rest…)

    • Nommer@sh.itjust.works
      131·
      1 year ago

      You must save a lot of money on dental bills because you have your head shoved so far up your own ass you can see the back of your teeth. Get fucked.

    • dragonflyteaparty@lemmy.world
      10·
      1 year ago

      You really don’t know how expensive it is to be poor, do you? There’s fees on top of fees on top of fees if you can’t pay on time or the whole amount at once. The idea of “just don’t be poor” doesn’t really work. It’s like saying if you want to be a billionaire, why aren’t you? Just do it.

      • Osirus@sh.itjust.works
        19·
        1 year ago

        I was poor. I’m not poor anymore. I went to college, 9/11 happened, went to the military immediately after college, paid off my college via the military, got into IT having never went to college for the field, killed myself to learn, worked 60+ hours for 8 years to excel in the field, now I’m comfortable. I’m working on being a millionaire first ;)

        • JamesFire@lemmy.world
          4·
          1 year ago

          I was poor. I’m not poor anymore.

          “It’s not a problem for me, so therefore it can’t be a problem for anyone”

          You… do realize how fucking stupid that sort of “logic” is right? Other people are allowed to have different experiences.

          • Osirus@sh.itjust.works
            12·
            1 year ago

            It’s not stupid, it’s proof that people can do it. You all just want “poor me” instead of taking accountablility and responsibility for your own situations. ANYONE who doesn’t have a physical deformity or extremely low IQ can join the military and pick a job that doesn’t involve getting your face blown off to get out of poverty. ANYONE. You guys are full of excuses.

          • Osirus@sh.itjust.works
            1·
            1 year ago

            I didn’t at first. I had to get grants, come up with money by working and get a loan. I only got 22000 paid for AFTER I signed up. The rest I just recently finished paying.

          • Osirus@sh.itjust.works
            15·
            1 year ago

            Yep grants work and my single mother cosigned for the rest. Hard to imagine when you are lazy and can’t do anything for yourself, I know. Got half paid when I joined the military the rest I paid after tho you could go to the miliary first to get there as well , if you weren’t all soft as baby shit, that is.