-- 2020 SALT LEGISLATIVE PRIORITIES --
Social Action Linking Together (SALT) has over 1,300 members supporting SALT’s goal to help shape social policy that advances the common good and supports human services in Virginia. We urge your support for:
SALT TANF Legislative Priorities
SALT Priority #1: Reform Locality Groupings for the TANF Program. This amendment provides that TANF Groups II and III be consolidated, so the disparity in the benefits for the two groups can be eliminated and fairness maintained. The current rates in Group III would apply to everyone in the consolidated group. TANF currently has a surplus of $124 million, so the cost increase of $11.3 million for providing equitable payments to those TANF-eligible in Groups II and III is plainly affordable
See SALT FACT SHEET: Reform Locality Groupings for TANF
SALT Priority #2: SALT TANF Time-Limit proposals—to change the TANF Regulations so that the time limit for receiving benefits (currently a maximum of 5 years) is a continuous 5 years, not 2 years. SALT is asking for the elimination of the two-year break. Virginia’s current two-year TANF time limit requires modification in order to accommodate those attempting to move out of poverty via education and training programs. Post-secondary education, GED, vocational education, and most credentialing programs, as well as apprenticeships, require more than 24 months for the screening, access and completion process. Eliminating the two-year limit is the right thing to do. Preparing adult TANF recipients for jobs to fully support their families should be a primary goal for Virginia. Attaining this goal would be a win-win for both TANF recipients and taxpayers. However, the current two-year time limit placed on continuous receipt of TANF benefits is an impediment, making that goal unattainable.
See SALT FACT SHEET: Virginia Salt Tanf Time-Limits
SALT Priority #3: TANF Adjustments—SALT supports the original purpose of TANF, which is to enable the children in needy families to be cared for in their own homes or homes of relatives. Thanks to a dramatic 64% caseload reduction, there is no reason why federal TANF block grant savings--there is currently a $124 million surplus--should be used for anything other than a modest ten percent benefit increase to re-invest in families still receiving TANF.
See FACT SHEET: TANFBenefits1
See SALT FACT SHEET #2: TANF Increase & Standards of Assistance (SOA)
SALT Criminal Justice Legislative Priorities
SALT Priority #4: Lifting the Lifetime Federal Ban on TANF for Individuals with Drug Felony Records. This ban imposes a life sentence (or lifetime penalty) after prison time has been served. It penalizes innocent children of drug felons (not only the offender) and impedes re-entry efforts and family reintegration.
See FACT SHEET: Eliminate Tanf Life -Time Ban
SALT Priority #5: Eliminating the $5.00 medical co-pays for inmates in Virginia is a priority. For example, with a rate of pay of $.48 per hour, that’s 11 hours of work to cover a single medical co-pay. Three states have taken action in 2019 to change one of the most harmful policies in prison healthcare. Out-of-reach co-pays in Virginia prisons and jails have two inevitable and dangerous consequences. First, when ailing people avoid the doctor, disease is more likely to spread to others in the facility – and into the community when people are released before being treated. Second, illnesses are likely to worsen as long as people avoid the doctor, which means more aggressive (and expensive) treatment when they can no longer go without it. It’s time for Virginia to change this risky and regressive policy.
See FACT SHEET: Medical Co-Pays for Incarcerated
SALT Priority #6: Pay imprisoned people in Virginia a reasonable wage for their mandated prison labor. Currently, Virginia is one of 14 states in which imprisonment is treated as voluntary unemployment. State prison job pay in Virginia is a median of about 29 cents an hour, meaning that: 1) most incarcerated parents cannot feasibly pay the full amount of child-support obligations and or court fees, ending up tens of thousands of dollars in debt by the time they get out; and 2) imprisoned people are perpetually in debt trying to obtain basic necessities, e.g., it can take a week’s wages to buy a box of tampons or to save up to make a phone call to family members. We are essentially destroying chances at successful reintegration without fair wages to help them survive. We propose that Virginia pass legislation that provides reasonable compensation to incarcerated workers.
See FACT SHEET: Salt Prison Pay Fact Sheet
SALT Priority #7: Limiting and Ending Solitary Confinement. SALT supports the reducing of solitary confinement to an absolute minimum and legislation to amend the data reporting law requiring VADOC to Report Data on Solitary Confinement. This practice is considered torture and fails to meet the “constructive and rehabilitative purpose” of criminal justice as set forth in statements by the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops in 2000; the UN Standard Minimum Rules on the Treatment of Prisoners; and the US Justice Department.
See SALT Fact Sheet #1: Solitary Confinement One-Pager (final)
See SALT Fact Sheet #2: Solitary Confinement –First Report FY 1019
SALT Priority #8: Official ID for Virginians returning from incarceration is critical. Citizens without an ID are denied access to jobs, their own money, disability and social services, and housing. These people are left without a safety net or opportunity for upward mobility and little assistance in navigating a complex bureaucratic process. Without policy changes, these people are denied a fair chance to rebuild their lives, and many are caught in a cycle of homelessness and incarceration. Every person incarcerated in Virginia should be provided with proof of incarceration upon release that may be exchanged for a state ID card free of charge. This small change will remove a significant barrier to people attempting to reintegrate into society. Ensuring access to ID is critical for success after incarceration.
See FACT SHEET: For Prisoner ID Access
(October 21, 2019)