Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act - Essay Example

?Insert Insert Insert Q1 The signing of the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act in 1996 replaced the Aid to Families with Dependent children (AFDC) program with Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) program. TANF differs in some aspects from the AFDC. First, TANF gave states more authority to determine and design their own welfare programs. This helped to eliminate the entitlement status created by AFDC, as no one has direct right to benefit. Secondly, TANF introduced a limit of five years under which one was eligible to benefit from the program. This is a direct contrast from AFDC where recipients appeared trapped in a lifetime government aid. TANF also differs from AFDC as it introduced a work requirement on the beneficiary which lacked in AFDC lacked this aspect (Waldinger 13). In the American Dream, Deparle argues that the welfare reforms is of no help to women as they continued to struggle even after enrolment in to the program. The welfare program did not provide the necessary resources to move the families of the recipients from the poverty. Angie and Jewel got off the welfare to find jobs on their own as the jobs on their own was paying better than the welfare jobs. The welfare required Angie to work for long hours while getting minimum wages, which could not move her family from the poverty, this prompted Angie to find a private job and quit from the welfare. Opal on the other hand, continued with her self-defeating path, using split and having children out of wedlock. Opal remained a drug addict even after being under the welfare program. The three on the welfare program were working under minimum wage jobs that making it harder for them to move their families out of poverty. Despite the changes in the welfare, Angie says that she is still waiting for her dream day. The women were never provided with the necessary skills required in order for them to obtain a job in the private sector. Most of the women under the welfare program are school dropouts hence they lack the necessary education required in order for them to secure a job. Although the TANF tried to offer some training to the women under the program, it was not sufficient enough as some of them ended back to their former lifestyles. A good example of this is Opal who ended back to using drugs. Q2 The California three strikes law is a law designed to ensure longer prison sentences and greater punishments to those who commit an offense, and had been earlier convicted of serious or violent felony offences. The law does not only target the third strikers but also the second strikers. The law requires that if a person is convicted of a felony and has two or more strikes, he/she must be sentenced to at least 25 years or life in prison. The California three-strike law adds time to prison sentences leading to an increase to incarceration rate in the western countries. The 25 years or life imprisonment for second and third strikes offenses has led to a significant increase in the number of imprisonments in California and the US as general from 1970s. The other factors involved include, the law has led to incarceration of people with non-violent or non-serious third felonies therefore, increasing the number of prisoners in the US. This leads to wastage of taxpayers’ money in maintaining many old and harmless prisoners incarcerated in their third strike. The other involved factor is that the law has led to the creation of stereotypes that blacks are violent and criminals. This is due to the large number of blacks incarcerated by the third strike. Mass incarceration in California and in the US as well affects the intimate relations. Imprisonment of large numbers of males reduces the number of male partners existing in the neighborhood, therefore, putting women in a disadvantaged position in search for male partners. This has led to an increase in transmission of STDs in the society. Incarceration erodes the family ties of the victims. When a parent is incarcerated, he/she is separated from the rest of the family and more specifically the children. This affects their future relations. The father-son relationship is adversely affected (Western26). Incarceration leads to ex- inmates being denied basic civil liberties after being released from prison. Ex inmates are denied the right to vote in some states like Florida and California. Incarceration also affects the chances of an ex-convict to get a job. Many employers look at the criminal records of the candidate. Those with criminal records are likely to be denied a job. Q3 Additional social services and enrichment programs are needed, as they will help to reduce the gap created by parenting styles. The parenting styles differ by class whereby the middle class emphasize on concerted cultivation while the working class emphasizes on achievement of natural growth. The enrichment programs will help in closing the gap observed in children from these groups. The services and programs will also help in providing quality school resources, friendly learning environment and skilled teachers to the poor children. This will allow the poor children to enjoy similar resources that are available to the rich children therefore eradicating the gap between the rich and the poor. The services are needed in order to help bring about equality in the education system between the rich and the poor families in the society. The poor and the rich will have the same resources needed for quality education and achievement. This will help in fighting the ethnic stereotyping about educational ability, where certain abilities are attributed to a certain ethnic group. The programs will go a long way in helping to eliminate the achievement gaps in the society. Since the rich and the poor children are given the same opportunities, the poor are able to achieve as the rich children. The programs are also needed to help to integrate the socioeconomic conditions in the country where a certain ethnic group is associated with failure and non-achievement. The poor families are given equal opportunities as the rich and therefore, they are able to cope with the economic situation in the country. Q4 The blacks that remain in the city are likely to be treated unequally with the rest of the city residents. The decrease of the black population in the cities means that they have a weakened voice to fight for their rights in the city. They are likely to be discriminated in job opportunities in the city. Employers are known to discriminate against the color where the blacks are the victims. As a result of being few in number, and having less power to fight for their rights, discrimination and harassment at work is likely to be rampant. There is likely to be unfair treatment of blacks in the city when other city residents might tell them to join the others who are out of the city. This is likely to happen, as those in the city are few. The remaining are likely to be mocked to join the rest of the blacks out of town. There is likely to be a high incarceration rate among the outgoing blacks as the ratio of a possible incarceration between a white and a black is 1:8. Research has shown that incarceration in the black dominated regions is high. As a result of their concentration in one place, there is likely to be high number of imprisonment in the area. The poverty level among the outgoing blacks is likely to increase due to high level of unemployment. Employers are known to discriminate the blacks in employment chances; hence, the black dominated areas are likely to have a high level of poverty. The level of unemployment among the blacks is likely to escalate the poverty level. There is likely to be a high rate of welfare services in the black migrated areas. Welfare services are mostly associated with the blacks and the level of people under the welfare programs is likely to be high due to unemployment among the blacks. This is due to level of high unemployment among the blacks, which forces them to seek for welfare services from the authorities (DeParle 53). The level of school dropouts in the black migrated areas is likely to be high. The level of services in out of town is relatively low and this is likely to trigger high number of school dropouts in these areas. The movement out of town might lead to overcrowding of students in the area schools; this may lead to poor services to the students leading to massive dropouts of the black students. Work Cited DeParle, Jason. American Dream: Three Women, Ten Kids, and a Nation’s Drive to End Welfare. New York: Penguin. 2004 Print. Waldinger, Lichter, How the other half works: Immigration and the social organization of labor. Berkeley, CA: University of California 2003. Press. Western, B.. Punishment and inequality in America. New York: Russell Sage Foundation 2006 Print. Read More