Salon.com > Global Burden of Disease Study http://www.salon.com Sun, 19 May 2013 19:00:00 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.2.1 Prostitution for the price of a happy meal http://www.salon.com/2012/12/27/prostitution_for_the_price_of_a_happy_meal/ http://www.salon.com/2012/12/27/prostitution_for_the_price_of_a_happy_meal/#comments Thu, 27 Dec 2012 16:00:00 +0000 http://www.origin.railrode.net/?p=13155674 The American Prospect Carla walked into my office with despair in her eyes. I was surprised. Carla has been doing well in her four months out of prison; she got off drugs, regained custody of her kids, and even enrolled in a local community college.

Without much prodding she admitted to me that she had retuned to prostitution: “I am putting myself at risk for HIV to get my kids a f---ing happy meal.”

Despite looking high and low for a job, Carla explained, she was still unemployed. Most entry-level jobs felt out of reach with her drug record, but what’s worse, even the state wasn’t willing to throw her a temporary life preserver.

You see, Carla is from one of the 32 states in the country that ban anyone convicted of a drug felony from collecting food stamps. With the release of the Global Burden of Disease Study last week, it bears looking at how we are perpetuating burdens among the most vulnerable Americans with our outdated laws.

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