Tuesday, April 22, 2008
Editorial: Making parents pay child support
Deadbeat parents can't pay their debt to children while locked up.
From the RoundTable blog
Read the latest entries
Tossing deadbeat parents in the slammer may satisfy society's need to punish them for the scoundrels that they are. But it leaves their children still hurting for life's necessities, and it ends up costing society twice: once for helping poorer families with food, rent, medical and other government assistance, and then for providing the deadbeats with three hots and a cot.
There might be a better way. The General Assembly established a pilot project for Hampton and Fairfax, Spotsylvania and Campbell counties to create diversion programs. Instead of going to jail, child support dodgers could enter a closely monitored program that would require them to work and pay off their debts.
"When you put a guy in jail, you're not going to get anything out of him," Jim Dedes, Fairfax County's director of court services, told The Washington Post. "Anything that gets money to the families makes a lot of sense. Jail is a great lever for getting guys to shape up, but if you can impact them before they're incarcerated, you really can't lose."
Judges in the four jurisdictions would have an alternative to ordering jail. Virginia expects that initially about 450 jail sentences could be avoided. That's just a small drop in the child-support-dodgers' bucket. In 2006, 7,234 jail placements were related to failure to pay support, with an average stay of 55 days.
When parents skip out, the state often steps in with financial help. If the pilot project works as planned, the parents will be honoring their debt to the children, lifting the burden on the state and saving taxpayers the cost of imprisonment.
Virginia projects that about $34,000 of the costs to set up the program will not be covered the first year, but after that the state will come out ahead -- some $300,000 by year six.
So, too, would the children of these parents benefit.
If the pilot project enjoys success after a year or two, lawmakers should not hesitate to extend the option to all jurisdictions.
