Welfare Drug Bans and Criminal Legal Cycling

Abstract

Punitive policies of welfare and criminal legal systems reflect a shared orientation governing social marginality. The welfare drug bans, which prohibit people convicted of drug-related felonies from receiving cash assistance and food stamps, are a key example of increasing synergies between the two systems. In this article, we examine whether the bans increase recidivism by leveraging a methodologically rigorous approach using administrative data from California to compare rearrest rates among people convicted before and after the bans. We find that the cash assistance ban has no measurable impact on recidivism, but the food stamps ban hastens time to arrest, particularly in counties with more accessible policies and more generous benefits. We also find differences in the bans” effects by gender and race/ethnicity, with consequences concentrated among non-Hispanic White and Black men. The findings underscore the importance of inclusive welfare systems for protecting against repeat contact with the criminal legal system.