Mississippi Woman Receives Three Year Prison Sentence For Feeding Her Family

[housewolf]

Mississippi Woman Receives Three Year Prison Sentence For Feeding Her Family
By Ian Millhiser on Nov 15, 2011 at 3:00 pm

Last week, a federal court in Mississippi sentenced a key figure in a $3 million mortgage fraud scheme to two and a half years in federal prison. Just a few days earlier, however, a Mississippi federal judge imposed a significantly harsher sentence on a woman who lied on her benefits applications in order to receive just $4,367 in food stamps to help feed her family:

n moments of desperation, a lie can seem like the only option. Anita McLemore, a Mississippi mother of two, faced one of those unfortunate moments when filling out her application for food stamps — and now she’ll pay the price, by spending three years of her life behind bars in federal prison.

Thanks to a federal ban on food stamps for people with felony drug convictions, people like McLemore are out of luck when it comes to getting assistance with putting food on their tables. Though states can opt out of the ban, those that don’t (like Mississippi) deny food stamps even to individuals who have already served their sentences or overcome previous addictions. It’s true that McLemore’s past isn’t perfect — she has four felony drug convictions and one misdemeanor, which place her firmly in the category of people the federal government has declared unfit to receive public benefits. Hence, faced with the prospect of being unable to feed her family, McLemore lied on her application.

In a compassionate nation, the penalty for drug use is not starvation. In a just nation, the penalty for drug use is not that your two children must be hungry as well. There is no excuse for a federal drug policy that punishes anyone by taking away their ability to put food on the table — and that punishes them so severely for the crime of needing to eat.

And, unlike thousands of Wall Street bankers who helped plunge America’s economy into a catastrophic recession, McLemore actually paid back the $4,367 she received.

http://thinkprogress.org/justice/2011/11/15/369180/mississippi-woman-receives-three-year-prison-sentence-for-feeding-her-family/

[FirstLight]

1. bullshit...

:mad:

I swear, laws like these make me pray the Movement just tears the whole fucking thing DOWN...

[laundry_queen]

2. OMFG

A nation of sociopaths - where people who have addictions or illnesses or who aren't 'perfect' deserve to starve and die. Decrease the surplus population I guess. :puke:

[arcane1]

6. And apparently their children deserve the same fate

:puke:

[Uncle Joe]

3. Just another tragic dimension of our dysfunctional, insane "War on Drugs" policy and our

multi-tiered "justice" system.

Thanks for the thread, housewolf.

[truedelphi]

4. That totally explains our life in this gulag. n/t

[unblock]

5. today's right-wing wouldn't even acknowledge this as "unintended consequences"

they have absolutely no problem with the children of a convicted drug user starving.
it's not an unintended consequence, it's justice in their eyes.

they have an amazing capactity to write entire families or communities off based on even the smallest of transgressions of even one of them.

[noiretextatique]

7. she paid back the money, and she still goes to prison

that judge is a total asshole.

[Freddie Stubbs]

13. Paid it back? I thought that she needed it to feed her family?

[noiretextatique]

18. per the article, she paid back the money

unlike your typical white collar type of criminal.

[Freddie Stubbs]

19. So, she must have had some spare cash lying around

[noiretextatique]

21. maybe she actually got a job at some point

:wow: unlike white collar criminals who benefit from a justus system that punishes poor people more harshly than rich people.

[beam me up scottie]

25. Maybe some good people decided to help her out so that she could keep her kids.

How much did the white collar criminals have to pay in restitution?

[LanternWaste]

34. Post hoc ergo prompter hoc...? n/t

Post hoc ergo prompter hoc...?

[closeupready]

36. It's interesting how you always seem to find a way to sympathize with bureaucracy against the poor.

nt

[Occulus]

39. He had a pic of a blue dog where that fucker Duncan is in his sig line right now.

That should tell you everything you need to know about Freddie Stubbs. He was not ever, and is not now, anything like a Democrat.

[closeupready]

41. Completely agree.

nt

[ehrnst]

37. Or people donated when they heard about what happened to her family. (nt)

[Gormy Cuss]

43. Right, because that money couldn't have been a loan from a relative trying to keep her out of jail

or from her own subsequent earnings.

[sammytko]

8. I don't think they would keep the kids off of snap

I was checking the rules for Texas and they allow illegal immigrants to apply and receive food stamps if any of their kids were born here and they meet the other guidelines. No ss number required either.

[Laelth]

9. k&r for exposure. This is unjust and infuriating. n/t

-Laelth

[rocktivity]

10. It's going to cost a heck of a lot more than $4,637 to jail her

plus, if necessary, the cost of putting their kids in foster care.

:crazy:
rocktivity

[housewolf]

11. That was my first thought, also

I've visited many of our 50 states, but the ONE I have NEVER wanted to visit was Mississippi!

[Solly Mack]

12. "In a compassionate nation, the penalty... In a just nation."

But in America...

[HappyMe]

14. I'm just speechless.

[backtoblue]

15. Tragic circumstance to be in

No one should go hungry and my heart goes out to her. It's not her children's fault that she's had a felony - those kids need food!

[sammytko]

23. The kids would still be eligible, but she would not

She could have probably still received food stamps on their behalf.

[Mimosa]

16. Prison nation. SAD.

The woman may not even be able to get a jobs because of her past felony convictions. WTH is she supposed to do?

[beam me up scottie]

17. "She has been the beneficiary of government generosity in state court."

Obviously he had to right that wrong. :mad:

McLemore received $4,367 in benefits. She has paid the money back.

But that wasn't enough to keep her out of prison.

Wingate bypassed sentencing McLemore under federal guidelines that suggested she receive two to eight months in prison and would have made her eligible for probation. He instead sentenced her under a federal statute that carries a maximum five years in prison.

"The defendant's criminal record is simply abominable," Wingate said. "She has been the beneficiary of government generosity in state court."

Wingate said McLemore's guilty plea to making false statements is her sixth conviction. But despite being a repeat offender, Wingate said, she has spent only 10 days in state custody on the state drug charges.

"While committing this offense, she was still on supervised released," Wingate said. "While on bond, she tested positive for drugs."

Wingate said McLemore has a serious drug history.

"She has been fortunate to evade any punishment," Wingate said.

So he's punishing her for her previous crimes even though she was already sentenced for them.

And he's punishing her children too:

There is no federal prison in Mississippi for female inmates.

[Freddie Stubbs]

20. Not everyone is cut out to be a parent

[DefenseLawyer]

22. Are you for real?

Or is this some kind of performance art?

[noiretextatique]

27. unfortunately...it is real

:eyes: a real live DU "liberal"

[Freddie Stubbs]

31. I am the real deal

[Name removed]

40. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[DefenseLawyer]

44. Fuck the doomed!

One day you may come to realize that your contempt for the weakest among us doesn't make you strong.

[beam me up scottie]

24. And yet the greedy bastards who stole MILLIONS from innocent people get to keep theirs.

The woman lied about her previous felony to get less than $4500 in food stamps to FEED HER KIDS, for fuck's sake.

And she paid it back.

[noiretextatique]

28. but...but...but she committed a CRIME!!!!!!!

lazy welfare cheats deserve to rot in prison forever, while "job creators" who commit crimes get a slap on the wrist.

[beam me up scottie]

29. Apparently she shouldn't have even been allowed to have kids.

And the fact that she paid the money back means she had all that cash laying around the whole time.

Off with her head!

[noiretextatique]

30. and she paid the money back!

still she get more time than CRIMINALS who stole millions of dollars! fng outrageous.

[Freddie Stubbs]

32. She only paid it back because she got caught

[LanternWaste]

35. Nor are many people qualified to judge

Nor are many people qualified to judge a parent with such a limited amount of information... regardless of how valid they think their qualifications are to do just that.

:shrug:

[closeupready]

42. That's what I meant upthread. Let's turn Republican on her, and assume the worst about

her and what her intentions were, and when she tries to explain, let's assert that she's lying, and make it her job to prove she's honest.

Honestly, people who see the world like that are fucked up. :mad:

[Canuckistanian]

26. Wow

That is fucked up.

So what are former drug felons supposed to do if they fall on hard times?

Go back to a life of crime?

[BlueIris]

33. Awful. I really had no idea there is a FEDERAL ban on food assistance for drug related crimes.

AWFUL.

[ehrnst]

38. The 'war on drugs' in this country is destroying our country. (nt)

[Obamanaut]

45. . nt