20 Years in Prison for Failing to Pay Child Support?
The article below is illustrative of the problems with the child support system in many ways:
1) I’ve often made the point that when we jail or threaten to jail child support debtors and they pay money to stay out of jail, this money often is not theirs but instead money they’ve borrowed from their family and friends. Yet inevitably whatever chest-thumping/publicity-seeking DA who’s behind the latest crackdown will tell you “See? The deadbeats have the money and the threat of jail makes them pay!”
In this article, a judge is admitting that threatening to jail people means they borrow money from family members to stay out. He’s admitting that they don’t have the money to pay themselves, and that they’re being jailed for inability to pay their debts. In other words, debtor’s prison.
2) I’m not sure if we have any Father of the Year candidates in this article, but most of the “deadbeats” certainly seem to be low-income men whose ability to pay is questionable. We’re told two of their occupations–one is a roofer, the other is a construction worker–and both claim they’re having a hard time finding work. One of them says that the fact that his driver’s license was suspended for nonpayment of child support has made it more difficult to find work.
3) Most notable is the article’s assertion that Andrew Tayrien was sentenced to “20 years in prison for non-support, a class B felony.” Twenty years? Is that a misprint?
4) The article mentions the Arkansas Department of Finance & Administration’s Office of Child Support Enforcement’s new top Child Support Evaders list, which can be found here. Of the six listed, the biggest “deadbeat” is a waitress. We also have one youth camp worker, and four people who are so successful in their careers that the DFA doesn’t even know what their occupations are.
Oh, and tell me, when they catch the waitress, are they going to sentence her to 20 years in prison?
The piece is below. Tracy M. Neal, who wrote it, doesn’t seem to understand the implications of the facts in her own article–she can be reached at tracyn@nwanews.com.
Thanks to child support expert Jane Spies of the National Family Justice Association for sending me the article. Jane discusses problems with the child support system in her recent article The Myth of the Successful Child Support System.
SUNDAY FOCUS : Big child-support bills could result in jail time
By Tracy M. Neal Staff Writer / tracyn@nwanews.com
November 11, 2007
BENTONVILLE — Child support or jail.
That was the rule Circuit Judge Xollie Duncan stressed to people recently as they were called before her for failure to pay child support.
Duncan and Circuit Judge John Scott set aside a day each month to hear such cases.
“ The rule is you pay child support or you go to jail, ” Duncan said to Richard McKeever. “ You understand that. ”
McKeever was arrested for failure to pay child support. He owes more than $ 23, 500. He claims he works part time in a construction job and received $ 215 several days ago.
“ I’ve been trying to make enough to live, ” McKeever told the judge.
McKeever claims he works with an acquaintance who drove him to job sites. McKeever is hampered from finding a better job because he lost his driver’s license — one of the punishments for his failure to pay child support. (more…)
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Stumble It!
November 12th, 2007 at 2:16 pm
I have dealing with the “child support monster” for over 20 years and it never fails to amaze…… No Horrify me as to how tyrannical and unreasonable the GiSKERS (government sponsored kidnapping and extortion racket ie child support) can behave. Why you would think you are stealing from them…. Hmmmmmm
Well actually in their warped and perverted thinking , you are stealing from them. For every dollar they extort out of you, they get one or more federal dollars to operate their little extortion racket and insure their careers! So in a warped and twisted* way of thinking, it is stealing since they have to get their money from somewhere and these rotten bastards will not get a real job.( * it is funny… no not ha ha, but sick and warped and how the word those words seem to apply to the GiSKERS).
The day will come either by a full fledged civil rights movement coming into its own or the very scary and very tragic possibility of a societal collapse, will put an end to this God Awful Racket and Fraud. These “thieves and terrorist” will just end up in the history books along side Adolf Hitler, the communist and the KKK. Evil people who were finally beaten and vanquished. However unlike the Nazi’s and the communist, the child support terrorist will not take their very richly deserved punishment like a man… no they will scream and cry and say it is not fair! When we try the bastards for crimes against humanity( ie fathers and children) and sentence them to hang. They are going to kick, scream and cry, just like the cowardly little parasites they are! WE won’t have any option, we either get rid of them or they will come back.,just like cockroaches! We will have to make it plain that to atempt such a thing again, will result in harsh punishment.
I know is sounds mean, but people such as these don’t seem to understand the difference between right and wrong. You have to get tough to stop them!
November 12th, 2007 at 3:26 pm
Felony is serious. A convicted felon when they are released from prison has few rights. They pay higher insurance, must disclose on job applications, lose the right to vote, to name a few.
On the other hand, I thought debtor’s prison was done away with in the 1800s. The government hates men so much that they break their own runs throwing men in jail.
Note the judge is a woman. I wonder if she is a divorced woman.
November 12th, 2007 at 3:41 pm
I hate to bring up Darren Mack, but the above situations sound rife with the possibility of violence: Working class men facing long prison sentences EVEN IF they make a best effort to pay. What logically is going to happen?
We’re going to see more of this in the near future since the construction market is now tightening and millions of these men will have reduced incomes and the judges unlikely to adjust support accordingly.
Ironically, in the meantime, as real estate values fall so do property taxes proportionately and that’s the money that goes to judges’ and their staff’s salaries along with other feminine socialist goodies. It’s almost like a trap has been sprung: Raise revenues by a factor of almost 200% in the course of 5 years and then… cut them off at the knees in 2. Less money in “child” support coming in AND more money needed for prisons.
November 13th, 2007 at 2:41 am
I keep telling everyone what the solution is:
Scream for the enforcement of the Peonage Law.
Glenn, you may start screaming any time. The grand juries are not going to indict these criminals as long as we continue to treat the Antipeonage Act as classified information. We should start treating it the way the New York Times treats classified info!
Speaking of Darren Mack, his trial had one very positive result: They put Judge Weller on the stand and he impressed the jurors as a complete prick! Here is my report on http://www.antipeonage.0catch.com/nevadaenemies.htm
Darren Mack pled guilty. But here is what the jurors had to say about Judge Weller after watching his testimony. They did say that while Judge Weller is a jerk, he did not deserve to get shot. I say, walk a mile in our moccasins, and then determine why so many American revolutionaries, including John Adams and Tom Jefferson, felt tyrants should die. Why the Virginia State flag shows a prone figure and the motto “Sic Semper Tyrannis”.
I believe Mack should have gone ahead and presented his case. And then appealed. Why? Because Judge Weller had no way of knowing who shot him and if he was as honest as the witness oath requires him to be, he would have admitted that Darren Mack is not the only person with a motive to shoot him. Some of that testimony should not have been allowed as prejudicial.
A good public policy reason for prohibiting peonage and extortion is that those being extorted sometimes react badly.
November 13th, 2007 at 3:01 am
“I hate to bring up Darren Mack, but ….” says Polishknight. Drive a man into a tight enough corner and what do we expect him to do? So far, men have shown the restraint of Saints, the patience of Job and the hopefulness of Joan of Arc. All with the same result. Saints got to be that way by dying, usually in a grusome manner; Job is still arguing with God and still hasn’t got a straight answer to ‘Why Me?’; and Joan was a loony whose hope ended in a burnt crisp. Darren at least took the message home to the Judge. Others will too.
The Judges who take the attitude portrayed, along with that other infamous bastard who taught his fellow judges to disregard a man’s Constitutional rights and ‘throw the bum on the street’, DESERVE an FMJ. Whether such summary justice awards are given by a bad man or a good one hardly matters.
Let Justice be done.
November 13th, 2007 at 1:04 pm
If a woman can’t or won’t support her children, the law assumes she can’t support her children and gives her welfare.
If a man can’t or won’t support his children, the law assumes he won’t support his children and puts him in jail.
I’ve heard that it costs $30,000 a year to keep a man in jail. Over 20 years, that’s $600,000–equivalent to about a million after taxes.
If it only costs $10,000 a year, that’s still $200,000.
The children would be better off if the state simply gave the children the money. Even if the state gave them half that amount the children would be better off.
July 27th, 2009 at 6:03 am
In response to the article about Hon. Xollie Duncan / Hon. David Clinger, they are actually Husband and Wife. And, though my Husband has been and unemployed woodworker in this area and I was recently unemployed due to the economy, not only did they Jail my husband, they actually RAISED his support payments after being jailed for 67 days. Michael Shoane stated he was Able Bodied, yes he is and he would do ANY job he can find, but there are NO jobs in this area, when he has applied for the pick up trash jobs and low pay jobs, they tell him he is OVER QUALIFIED and won’t hire him. What is a man (or woman) supposed to do in that situation?
And, I am not just a disgruntled spouse of someone who pays child support, I also pay child support for a 17 year old who decided he wanted to spend time with his Dad, will I go to jail if I miss payments? Do I pay my husbands child support so he doesn’t go to jail or do I pay my child support so I don’t go to jail? Do I pay his child support or buy my Insulin as I am a Type 1 (juvenile) diabetic? Do I die for not buying the insulin I need to live or pay child support so I don’t go to jail???
These are the dilemmas that a lot of people who are getting pegged as “deadbeat” are facing. We want to pay, we don’t have the ability to pay, but they don’t care.