by Elaine M. Doxie

Created on: May 02, 2010   Last Updated: November 26, 2010

Parents who owe back child support should definitely NOT be sent to jail, and that extends to women who are unable to pay their child support as well.  In fact, most of the current measures that are taken to collect child support are, at best, ineffective, and at their worst, a clear violation of due process.  They start with things like putting the debt on their credit reports, taking away passports and driver's licenses, and end with threatening jail-time.  Violators are not given due process of law, and are in fact looked upon as criminals, even if their sole reason for falling behind is the loss of a job, or even the fact that child support was set at a level that they could not afford in the first place.  The non-custodial parent must be left with enough money to support themselves or they cannot support their children, no matter how much they are threatened.

The whole idea of child support has actually become corrupted, to the point where child support is now a "prize" for the "winner" of the child custody case, rather than being truly for the the children.  It creates an adversarial atmosphere between the parents, who actually should be working for the good of the children, but instead, they often wind up fighting amongst themselves as if they are the children themselves.  One person gets custody of the children and child support while the other is left with nothing, and having to pay for the privilege.  It becomes a winner take all mentality, and nobody wins, especially not the children.  After this adversarial process, we seek to punish the children even further by putting one of their parents in jail for what amounts to a debtor's prison.  Unfortunately, child support enforcement is based on a lynch mob mentality as opposed to logic and Constitutional law.

There are those who believe that they would not be paid without the threat of jail, but who is really paying?  It could be the obligor's friends or family trying to keep them out of jail because of a job loss, or even a disability that does not allow them to work at a proper job.  There are people who genuinely do not have a way to pay their child support themselves, and to be thrown in jail for this is counterproductive as they have just become even less employable.

The first thing they do if you fall behind on child support is to garnish your wages.  This is a reasonable step and is sometimes necessary to collect the proper amount. 

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