NCJ Number
230213
Journal
Corrections Today Volume: 71 Issue: 6 Dated: December 2009 Pages: 84-88
Date Published
December 2009
Length
5 pages
Annotation
This article presents corrections professionals with basic facts on child support orders, which many offenders are under during and after their incarceration.
Abstract
The article first explains four basic facts about child support orders. First, if an offender is a parent who has experienced a divorce or legal separation and has not been living with a child in the home, he/she is likely to have child support obligations. Second, child support obligations do not stop just because someone is unemployed or has no income. Third, the child support program has many tools to enforce payment of support; and fourth, the child support system is highly automated and can be used to locate individuals and their places of employment. The article's second section poses and answers frequently asked questions about offenders and ex-offenders who may be under child support orders. The questions include whether it is possible an offender did not know about being under a child support order; whether a client can be responsible for child support without knowing he has a child; how the amount of the child support order is set; whether someone with no income can have a child support order; and how wages can be garnished when a client does not tell an employer that he has a child support order. The third section of the article reviews promising practices for how States are dealing with persons under child support orders who have been incarcerated. Interventions by specific States are described. Remaining sections of the article offer suggestions for how corrections officials and agencies can best work with child support enforcement agencies in dealing with the child support responsibilities of offenders during incarceration and upon reentry into the community.