PARENT'S RIGHTS NOW!

According the The Post and Courier, South Carolina Governor Mark Sanford likes most of budget. He did, however, express "concern about the proposed spending for the state's prison system. He noted that the national average is to spend $62.22 per inmate per day, while South Carolina spends about $45.02. The proposed budget would spend $43.94, which Sanford said could jeopardize the safety of inmates and prison workers."

We wonder if the Governor* and the Legislature have yet realized that a new study says 1 in 100 U.S. Adults Behind Bars. This study suggests that we, as a society, can no longer afford to incarcerate everyone who owes child support. Instead, we have to be selective and begin to use the coercive powers of Civil Contempt more judiciously to obtain compliance with Court Orders, not simply to punish.

*Ironically, while Governor Sanford is pushing for enhanced DUI penalties, The Pew Institute Report recommended diverting nonviolent offenders away from prison and using punishments short of reincarceration for minor or technical violations of probation or parole. The Report noted that, on average, states spend almost 7 percent on their budgets on corrections, trailing only healthcare, education and transportation. Much of those budgets are devoted to incarcerating DUI offenders. For example, as John Whitmire, a Democratic state senator from Houston and the chairman of the state senate’s criminal justice committee is quoted in The New York Times article: “We have 5,500 D.W.I offenders in prison [including people caught driving under the influence who had not been in an accident.] They’re in the general population. As serious as drinking and driving is, we should segregate them and give them treatment.”