UNEXPECTED PENALTIES CAN FETTER FELONS FOR LIFE

Sanctions May Restrict Jobs, Welfare, Housing.

As more inmates leave prison -- only to find unexpected federal and state
penalties awaiting them -- a local group is putting Indiana in the middle
of a national debate over how much punishment is enough.

Ex-offenders are often surprised by penalties not levied by a judge or jury
and not spelled out at sentencing.

Some are denied licenses to pursue their profession. Others are barred from
public housing. Parents with felony drug convictions can't get food stamps.

These measures, enacted in the 1980s and 1990s to get tough on crime,
target certain criminals such as sex offenders but deal mostly with drug
felons. When deciding to plead guilty, many are unaware of these sanctions.

In fact, Indiana is one of 19 states that permanently ban convicted drug
felons from getting welfare, according to the Sentencing Project of
Washington, D.C., a nonprofit advocacy group. The ban under the 1996
federal law sought to prevent felons from trading food stamps for cash and
even cut costs by trimming the number of people on welfare.

More than 600,000 people in the United States, including about 9,000 in
Indiana, will be released from prisons this year. A quarter of adult
inmates in Indiana have drug-related convictions.

"When is the debt paid?" asked J.T. Ferguson, executive director of the
Indiana group battling such penalties. "This is not about being soft on
crime or whether people should be locked up. This is about whether we as a
community believe redemption is possible."

Ferguson heads Public Action in Correctional Effort / Offender Aid and
Restoration, which plans on convening a statewide forum on the issue this fall.

Among the key topics is Indiana's ban on food stamps and other welfare
benefits for convicted drug felons. Thirty-one states and the District of
Columbia have eliminated the ban or modified it, for example, to exclude
those who underwent drug treatment.

Former Sen. Phil Gramm, R-Texas, proposed the ban in 1996.

From 1996 to 1999, 1,281 Hoosier women could not get benefits under the
Temporary Assistance for Needy Families program because of their drug
convictions, the Sentencing Project found.

They are among about 92,000 women nationwide affected by this ban,
according to the study. This places more than 135,000 children at risk
because of their parents' loss in income.

"The impact on women is pretty devastating," said Amy Hirsch, an attorney
with Community Legal Services in Philadelphia, who surveyed women with
felony drug convictions who were ineligible for food stamps and welfare.
"They have no way to eat, and so they drop out of drug treatment. It just
sets up a revolving door back to jail."

No one monitors after-prison penalties in each state, which have been added
piecemeal.

"They're scattered all over the statute book," said Margaret Love, who
chaired a task force for the American Bar Association that developed new
standards suggesting the laws be re-examined. "Many of them are very broad."

Next month, the association will decide whether to adopt a recommendation
that the sanctions be made part of sentencing.

Steve Johnson, executive director of the Indiana Prosecuting Attorneys
Council, supports working with judges and defense attorneys to tailor the
penalties to fit the individual.

"If the person shows signs of rehabilitation, we'd grant access (to
benefits)," he said, "provided they continue along a certain path."

After his reapplication for food stamps was denied in 1998, an Indiana man
convicted of possessing heroin and cocaine sued to get the ban changed.

"A felon who is a murderer could get food stamps, but a drug felon
couldn't," said Indiana Civil Liberties Union attorney Jackie Bowie-Suess,
who filed the lawsuit on his behalf. She said the law is also
unconstitutional double punishment for the same crime.

But the man lost after a federal judge found the legislation was related to
government interests in deterring drug use, reducing food-stamp fraud and
curbing welfare spending.

The penalties extend to housing, too. In Indianapolis, people evicted from
public housing because of drug-related criminal activity cannot reapply to
live there for three years, said Shelette Veal, deputy counsel of
operations at the Indianapolis Housing Agency.

Also, certain ex-offenders may not take jobs at health care facilities,
leaving former nurse's aide Shannon Sargent, 28, to work as a cashier at a
Wendy's restaurant after serving time for forgery.

"You lose a lot when you're incarcerated," said the single mother of four.
"I'm trying to get my life together for my kids."

The debate over so-called invisible punishments recently made headlines
after the Indiana Supreme Court granted a temporary stay to an extension of
Zachary's Law that would put the photographs and addresses of convicted sex
offenders online. The ICLU argued that offenders had the right to a court
hearing before the information was posted.

"This has nothing to do with punishment," said Rebecca Long, president of
the child advocacy group POSSE. "It has to do with embarrassment and shame.
. . . Public safety for women and children outweighs embarrassment."