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
    18·
    10 months ago

    Yes, take steps to not be poor. I did it and anyone else can too. The rest is just excuses.

    • Flying Squid@lemmy.world
      5·
      10 months ago

      I did it and anyone else can too.

      “I didn’t die from cancer, so no one would die from cancer if they just took the right steps and stopped making excuses.”

          • Osirus@sh.itjust.works
            1·
            10 months ago

            Only on lemmy do people doubt you when you say you were poor. Like “yeah you were poor, but not poor enough”

            • Flying Squid@lemmy.world
              1·
              10 months ago

              Maybe if you ever defined ‘poor’ in terms of income, which you didn’t. All I know is that ‘poor’ to you doesn’t include homeless people.

          • Osirus@sh.itjust.works
            12·
            10 months ago

            I’ve been poor. Maybe you are the one who doesn’t know what you are talking about then.

            • Flying Squid@lemmy.world
              3·
              10 months ago

              Poverty is a disease. It’s a myth that anyone can escape it through hard work. You did, if you really were poor and I would love your definition of poor here, because you got lucky.

              Were you living in a shack with a tin roof with no water or electricity? Were you living in a tent and eating out of dumpsters? I doubt it.

              • Osirus@sh.itjust.works
                11·
                10 months ago

                I’m speaking specifically in the US and we are talking about being poor, not homeless. That is a little different. No one in this conversation is sitting on a pc or phone or laptop from a fucking tent in the Phillipines. Quit moving goalposts to fit your narrative.

              • Osirus@sh.itjust.works
                12·
                10 months ago

                Next you are going to say “what about mentally ill, learning disabilities… etc.” Not what we are discussing.

    • egg360@lazysoci.al
      3·
      10 months ago

      sometimes life deals you a shitty hand. other times you screw up without meaning to. and the moment you do, the whole “don’t be poor in the first place” rhetoric doesn’t matter because you’re trapped by the system.

      • Osirus@sh.itjust.works
        02·
        10 months ago

        I never said don’t be poor in the first place. You are just making shit up. You can not get trapped by the system by being a law abiding citizen.

        • egg360@lazysoci.al
          3·
          10 months ago

          you can take steps not to be poor but then get screwed over anyways. be it bad luck or an innocent mistake.