Posted on 09/12/2011 6:56:00 AM PDT by PieterCasparzen
It may not be a crime to be poor, but it can land you behind bars if you also are behind on your child-support payments.
1. Only on msnbc.com 1. Updated 67 minutes ago 9/12/2011 12:10:41 PM +00:00 A day in the life of Iran’s president 2. Updated 70 minutes ago 9/12/2011 12:07:45 PM +00:00 Obama: We’re not where we need to be 3. Unable to pay child support, poor parents jailed 4. Getty Images Stock No promotion yet? Maybe you're not the boss' favorite 5. How 9/11 changed Pakistan 6. Image:Banff National Park UGC It's A Snap! Vote for your favorite travel photo 7. Image: Survivor 23 cast CBS Best Bets: 'Survivor,' 'Top Model' return to TV
Thousands of so-called “deadbeat” parents are jailed each year in the U.S. after failing to pay court-ordered child support — the vast majority of them for withholding or hiding money out of spite or a feeling that they’ve been unfairly gouged by the courts.
But in what might seem like an un-American plot twist from a Charles Dickens’ novel, advocates for the poor say, some parents are wrongly being locked away without any regard for their ability to pay — sometimes without the benefit of legal representation.
Randy Miller, a 39-year-old Iraqi war vet, found himself in that situation in November, when a judge in Floyd County, Ga., sent him to jail for violating a court order to pay child support.
He said he was stunned when the judge rebuffed his argument that he had made regular payments for more than a decade before losing his job in July 2009 and had recently resumed working.
...
(Excerpt) Read more at msnbc.msn.com ...
"In Suits at common law, where the value in controversy shall exceed twenty dollars, the right of trial by jury shall be preserved, and no fact tried by a jury, shall be otherwise re-examined in any Court of the United States, than according to the rules of the common law."
Indeed, there has been a judicial coup d’êtat which has taken over our Judiciary; it no longer honors our right as citizens to a trial by a jury of our peers.
Any time one citizen is sentenced to pay over monies to another because of damages that citizen has a right to a trial by jury of his peers, which then renders a verdict on the case. There are two little details called the law and the evidence which the jury considers if there is to be justice. Today, a judge simply writes an order and poor broke citizen has his property confiscated or his sorry butt thrown in jail or both without the opportunity to offer his version of the facts to a jury of his peers.
The sick and sorry lies offered as rationalizations for this would be comical if they were not so traitorous and treachorous.
I had this idea...if you can’t afford to have a child, don’t have sex and have a child. Then I thought, if you aren’t married, don’t have sex and have a child. Just an idea.
We have turned into those Arab third-world nations when it comes to debtor prison, reserved mainly if you’re a white male.
I’d like to know stats on how many whites are in this situations, vs. blacks or other ethnicities.
Many of the men affected by this were married when the child(ren) was/were born and later divorced. She won’t allow visitation, he doesn’t have the money for an attorney, but they expect the child support to keep rolling in. I’m sure many of us know people in situations like this and with other issues. Is every male in the United States who is a non-custodial parent in the wrong?
How many of our laws, policies, and “social programs” actually promote divorce instead of providing incentive for parents to stay married?
That’s a rhetorical question. The devil of it is, the sheeperals who support these policies are willfully CLUELESS as to the actual effects of these policies, and feel good about themselves for supporting them.
“I’d like to know stats on how many whites are in this situations, vs. blacks or other ethnicities.”
I was in family court once watching a black, female judge dispensing “justice.” In my opinion, she was arbitrary and irrational. She didn’t listen or care. She acted the same in cases involving whites and blacks but while I was there gave every woman before her everything they wanted from her. Men, black and white, were scr*wed.
A family law court judge can do things, like imprison you without legal representation, that can’t be done by any other type of judge. Something should be done to rein in their power.
Without any data that shows this is always the case, and there is no other reason that spouses walk off, this is presumptuous high horsing.
So the guy gets thrown in jail, looses what job he has, still can’t pay goes back to jail. Gets out, has no job goes back in. Round and round. Something is wrong with that system. Some one told me it’s not because a person can’t or won’t pay, it’s because they defied a court order.
Sometimes you can afford a child and then life happens and then you can’t afford them. Sometimes you can afford a home, a car, a computer, etc and life happens and you can no longer afford them.
I hope you never find yourself in such circumstances.
You beat me to it!!
This is and always has been an unconstitutional return to debtor prisons. How much of the money owed is being paid to support the children when the in arears father is in jail? I am hard pressed to recall any mother who has been jailed for non-payment. There is also no accounting at all to prove that the money is used to support the kids which it is not in too many cases.
My sister got lucky.
Married a yuppie.
Took him for all he was worth.
—Tom Petty.
I saw this actually happen to a guy.
There are sicko attorneys who write articles and get males resentful by characterizing child support as “alimony.”
Statutory provisions of this ilk were designed to deal with the segment of the population that quits jobs rather than pay child support. But when there are no jobs to quit, it is a sick joke.
On the days when the “criminal nonsupport” docket is called, you should see the poor guys, day laborers mostly, and the way the interest piles up means most of them are 20 30K in the hole.
These statutes are then fattened up with provisions about paying back government for welfare benefits and health care benefits, which further put the blokes in the hole. Then the blokes lose their drivers’ licenses for nonpayment of child support, which makes it further difficult to look for work.
The economy has nothing to offer these guys except selling dope. Then the guys go to jail and get further behind.
This statutory scheme majorly impacts the poor and the unmarried; I feel sick anytime I am at one of these dockets.
THE SYSTEM DOESN’T WORK AND IS EVIL
NEVER GET CAUGHT UP IN IT. IT WILL KILL YOU.
Oh, please. Did you read the article? People had children when they were married, had jobs, and could afford them easily. Then the recession hit. They lost their jobs. Eventually even the most prudent person runs out of money. Especially when a vindictive ex and her lawyers is jumping up and down on him, demanding every penny and then some, so that there’s nothing left to buy food with.
I am writing this as a divorced woman who has seen how unjust the system is toward fathers, and has taken GREAT care not to take advantage of my own ex.
yep, but the bell has already rung, or you are closing the barn door after the horse is already out..........
“Sometimes you can afford a child and then life happens and then you can’t afford them”
With a little maturity, this is avoidable. Young people do NOT use their head and will wait and save for NOTHING.
I could afford (according to the bank) a MUCH better home than the one I bought. I would be homeless right now if I was an immature and selfish fool who wanted more than I could afford.
You want your kid growing up poor?
I am in no way impacted by the issue, but I’ve always felt it would be more reasonable to determine a baseline support amount. There are of course many expenses incurred by custodial parents that are difficult to quantify, but does anyone believe that awards of several thousand per month are justified?
I had this idea...if you don't know the facts, don't spout off like you do.
I have a friend who had a child 16 years ago, while properly married. The marriage didn't last, and the ex-wife (as usual) got custody, with my friend having the burden of child support. So far, so good - he had no problem with supporting his child. Now fast forward to 2 years ago: my friend's business went bust, and he was doing all that he could to support his 2nd wife and their 2 kids. He didn't have enough money to pay the child support on a timely basis. Oh, and to make it worse, his prior employer was supposed to garnish wages and send them to the state - but didn't do so, and also didn't pay my friend the money. Despite that, he borrowed money and appeared at court to pay it back, in full (being about 2 months behind). His bitch ex-wife, from a very wealthy family, asked the judge to throw him in jail. My friend's lawyer said that if he was in jail that he couldn't earn any money to pay child support, and wasn't the whole point of the exercise to see that the child was supported? Further, he asked why it was the fault of my friend that his ex-employer took money from his pay and didn't pay the state. Too bad, said the (female) judge, off to jail you go. He got out 6 weeks later and 15 pounds lighter, only after he had been forced to agree to give up all of his parental rights, including the very name that his daughter carried. Meanwhile, his present wife and kids had to go on food stamps, and he only kept his job out of sheer luck that his boss was a thoroughly decent human being.
Don't tell me that the system is only full of irresponsible people - it is also full of decent people who, because of circumstances beyond their control become victims of a twisted and biased system that allows vindictive ex-spouses to call the shots. You want to know why a lot of men refuse to commit to women with marriage? Our incredibly biased family law system is the main reason.
Then you planned poorly. How many american live right on the edge with every penny of their pay going to maintain their lifestyle? total-us-savings-rate-lowest-in-recorded-history WAY too many.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.