Friday, August 29, 2008
TOO FEW SESSIONS CONTRIBUTE TO CROWDED DETENTION CENTER
The letter Too few court sessions contribute to crowded detention center by Alvin C. Hanson Jr., Deputy. Administrator (Retired), Charleston County Detention Center, raises some interesting points, but appears to miss the most obvious point.
Mr. Hanson posits that the one sure way to cut overcrowding in the Charleston County Jail is to increase the number of General Court Sessions. He concedes that, as an alternative, "We could set a time for how long a case can be continued before going to trial, " but concludes " That won't work because each case is different and each is handled by an attorney based on workload and whether the client is paying or not." However, he does not consider the obvious solution to relieving overcrowding.
A large percentage of detainees in any County Jail in South Carolina are incarcerated for failure to pay child support. Once they are incarcerated, there is no mechanism in place to allow for their release until they have either served their complete sentence, complied with the terms of the Order of Contempt that resulted in the incarceration, or successfully appealed the Order of Contempt. Scheduling more General Court Sessions will, therefore, do little to decrease the overcrowding in the Charleston County Detention Center. Relieving overcrowding will necessitate finding a way to helping keep fathers out of jail for failure to pay child support and a way of decreasing the amount of time they spend in jail for non-support.
Labels: Family Court Backlog
Sunday, August 24, 2008
OHIO BILL TO FREE DEADBEAT PARENTS
August 24, 2008
OH: Bill would free more deadbeat parents. Kids, state would all be winners, legislator says. Bill would free more deadbeat parents. Kids, state would all be winners, legislator says
Friday, August 22, 2008 3:10 AM
By Jim Siegel
THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH
Hoping to see more deadbeat parents placed in community-corrections programs instead of costly, crowded prisons, a state legislator from Franklin County proposed yesterday expanding a pilot sentencing program.
The bill would take a program that started in 2007 in Franklin, Delaware and five other counties and spread it statewide. State prison officials estimate that keeping those who fail to pay child support out of their penitentiaries would save an estimated $13,000 a year per offender and increase support payments by 71 percent.
"The state can save money on the cost of keeping them in prison, and (offenders) can earn money to pay back the child support," said Rep. Ted Celeste, D-Grandview Heights, who introduced the bill. "To me, it seems like a no-brainer."
Punishing deadbeat parents has long been an uncomfortable balancing act for the judicial system, as it weighs the desire to punish those who ignore court orders against the fact that an inmate can't earn money to make support payments.
Those who end up in prison are usually the repeat offenders, after judges decide they've had enough, said Linda Janes, a 17-year veteran of the state prison system and deputy director of the Division of Parole and Community Services.
Of the record 50,633 inmates in Ohio prisons this week, nearly 800 are locked up for failure to pay child support, Janes said. Based on the pilot program, which has diverted 650 people who could have be sent to prison, she estimated that 1,800 to 2,000 could be kept out of prison each year if the program went statewide.
Nonsupport offenders generally serve six- to eight-month prison sentences.
"We certainly can punish these people and rehabilitate these people in the community without spending the vast dollars it takes to incarcerate somebody," Janes said.
Celeste said he thinks the bill can be passed in the lame-duck session after the November election, possibly as an amendment to House Bill 130, which is designed to help prisoners re-enter society. The House has passed that bill.
Labels: "Deadbeat Dads", Child Support Collection, Civil Contempt
Friday, August 15, 2008
GREENVILLE MINISTER ARRESTED FOR BACK CHILD SUPPORT
GREENVILLE, S.C. (AP) -- A Greenville church music minister has been sentenced to six months in prison for failing to pay more than $394,000 in back child support for his 13 children. WYFF-TV in Greenville says a judge ordered Lyman Rea on Thursday to pay $37,000 before he's released. He was arrested Wednesday while preparing for an evening service at Second Baptist Church in Greenville.
It's unclear if Rea had an attorney. Calls to his home and the church were not immediately returned Thursday. A spokesman for the sheriff's department said he wasn't sure if the man had a lawyer.
Thirteen children? $394,000 in back child support owed? We have to wonder whether this man was filing Income Tax Returns and whether his employer filed the requisite New Hire Reporting Form.
Labels: "Deadbeat Dads", Child Support, DNA, Responsibility
