In Louisiana, proposed food stamp changes might hurt some ex-convicts

For Osby Bryant, $35 is a lifeline. That’s how much the federal food stamp program sends every month to the Shreveport native, who spent 43 years in prison for murder.

Now free on parole in New Orleans, the 70-year-old Bryant is slowly rebuilding his life. He works from 5 a.m. to noon every day as a carpenter while he saves money for an apartment.

“When you get out, you’re struggling to make ends meet. So you need all the little help you can get,” he said.

Rep. Ralph Abraham, R-Alto, who farms land in Richland Parish, said he would like to see the House bill adopted in full.

“I'm not voting against SNAP reforms that will lead people out of poverty and into the workforce because those reforms might make life harder for murderers, rapists and pedophiles,” Abraham said in an email. “If their paths are difficult, it's because of the choices they made, and they'll have to live with those consequences just as their victims and victims’ families will forever have to cope with what they did to them.”

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