Think “debtor’s prison†and the mind automatically reels back to the 19th Century and the horrors depicted so powerfully by Charles Dickens. Indeed, even the idea of debtor’s prison is apt to strike modern minds as primitive at its base since how is someone in prison supposed to get the funds to pay off a debt? Debtor’s prison seems barbaric since it can criminalize poverty. It is easy for we moderns to congratulate ourselves on coming out of the confused and confusing worldview that led to something as brutal and counterproductive as debtor’s prison.
Except that debtor’s prison is in fact alive and sick and politically popular in contemporary America. It is known as a crackdown on “deadbeat dads.†Indeed, the common alliterative term “deadbeat dads’ is used because much of our child support system is built upon a single model of a non-custodial parent in arrears, that of the feckless, irresponsible father. That stereotype was not woven out of whole cloth as there are indeed men who father children, could easily support them, and simply choose to avoid their obligations.
However, there are many so-called “deadbeat dads†who do not pay their full court-ordered child support simply because they cannot. Our present legal system makes criminals out of them even when their failure is for reasons that are no fault of their own.
The Bradley Amendment, named after its originator Senator Bill Bradley, was passed by Congress in 1986 to further the cause of child support collection and render child support collection laws uniform across the United States. It automatically puts in a non-expiring lien on non-custodial parents, the vast majority of whom are fathers, whenever child support is past due. The Bradley Amendment does not permit judicial discretion and requires child support payments be made regardless of the obligor’s physical capability.
The Wikipedia reports that the Bradley Amendment has led to some breathtaking injustices against fathers: “A veteran of the first Gulf War who was captured in Kuwait in 1990 and spent nearly five months as an Iraqi hostage being arrested the night after his release for not paying child support while he was a hostage.
A Texas man wrongly accused in 1980 of murder. After 10 years in prison, the man sued the state for wrongful imprisonment. The state responded with a bill for nearly $50,000 in child support that had not been paid while in prison.â€ÂÂ
The above are horror stories. But on a day-to-day basis, our child support enforcement makes criminals out of men who are doing their best and still not making it. The Wikipedia cites Ford Foundation Project Officer Ronald B. Mincy as finding that between 16-33% of obligors are “turnip dads†who earn less than $130 per week.
In our enthusiasm to ensure that children are adequately supported, we have adopted measures as crazy as trying to squeeze blood from turnips and far more inhumane since they in fact oppress human beings, usually men, on the grounds of their poverty.
The best Father’s Day present we can give to America’s struggling dads is to end our modern day debtor’s prison as it applies to those who are legitimately unable to meet their court-ordered child support payments.
