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Under a federal law from the 1990s, states can ban people with drug convictions from getting government food aid. Most states have opted out of the law with concerns it causes food insecurity and more crime, but several still require things like ongoing drug tests or short-term bans, and South Carolina and Nebraska still have the lifetime bans. Nebraska Public Media's Kassidy Arena reports lawmakers there tried to do away with the ban and just barely fell short.
(SOUNDBITE OF KITCHEN POT BANGING)
DERRICK OLIVARES MARTINEZ: All right, so this is - what I'm making is just your regular green salsa.
KASSIDY ARENA, BYLINE: Derrick Olivares Martinez cooked dozens of beef and cheese enchiladas in his apartment kitchen. It's a little business of his to make some money and support his friends and family.
(SOUNDBITE OF KITCHEN BLENDER RUNNING)
ARENA: He knows what it's like to go without.
OLIVARES MARTINEZ: Food is an essential part of your life every single day.
ARENA: Olivares Martinez was convicted for distribution of drugs in 2009. He was released from prison three years later, he says, with just the clothes on his back and $100. And he has a lifetime ban on a key federal food program - Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP. It didn't take long before he was homeless and hungry.
OLIVARES MARTINEZ: I felt frustrated and disappointed that, hey, you know, when you serve your time, when you get out, you're just like, OK, why am I being punished more for something that I've already paid my dues for?
ARENA: Nebraska bans people from SNAP if they have three convictions for possession or one for distribution. This year, the state's conservative legislature voted to end that ban. But Republican Governor Jim Pillen vetoed the bill, saying in his one-page veto letter, people who distribute illegal drugs should, quote, "not be entitled to taxpayer-funded benefits." Lawmakers just barely failed to override his veto, and State Senator Kathleen Kauth was among those who supported his decision.
KATHLEEN KAUTH: I'm very much a proponent of you make choices and choices have consequences. Nobody learns how to deal with the consequences of their action until there is actually a consequence that sticks.
ARENA: She adds, she feels the ban can discourage people from committing drug-related crimes.
KAUTH: Recidivism is such a huge problem. We're not helping anyone by not holding them responsible for the consequences of their actions.
ARENA: But there's been a trend toward restoring rights for people with felony convictions and ending the bans.
GINA PLATA-NINO: Some states have said, wait, that doesn't work. But the whole thing of incarceration is, you pay your dues. You have recovered. You're reentering society.
ARENA: That's Gina Plata-Nino, SNAP deputy director of the Washington-based Food Research and Action Center. Nebraska, Plata-Nino says, has seen recidivism increase in part because of the food ban. Advocates say it intensifies the financial pressure that leads to crime. Sarah Trook worked in a state government job helping people reenter the workforce. That was after she served her time on a drug conviction that got her banned from SNAP.
SARAH TROOK: To be told that Nebraska, you know, basically doesn't believe that you're capable of bettering yourself and they don't believe that you deserve to eat was really, really hard for me, sure.
ARENA: Olivares Martinez was among those speaking out, taking to Facebook to urge Nebraska to change the law.
(SOUNDBITE OF FOOD SIZZLING)
ARENA: As he cooks, he recalls when he would try to stretch out a bunch of bananas to last him a couple days.
OLIVARES MARTINEZ: I don't know what tomorrow holds for me. I don't know what tomorrow holds for all these folks that are going to be struggling - that are struggling, that struggle every single day, that go to bed crying because they're hungry.
ARENA: He says he will not stop advocating for people in his same circumstances to have government-assisted food access once they have completed their time in prison.
For NPR News, I'm Kassidy Arena in Lincoln, Nebraska.
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