The first session of the 2010 Indiana Child Custody and Support Advisory Committee [ICCSAC] hearings was dominated by discussion about alternatives to incarceration for non-compliance with child support payment orders. The Committee Chair, Vanessa Summers, had sought input on a matter that she thinks makes absolutely no sense; incarcerating a parent for not paying child support.
Tim Brown, Director of Legislative Services, Department of Correction [DOC] presented information about the Indiana Department of Corrections and offenders incarcerated for non-payment of court ordered child support. From 2006-2009 there was an average of 335 offenders with a non-support charge have that as their primary offense incarcerated with an average executed sentence of 310 days. About 3/4 of them had non-support as their primary offense.
According to statistics provided by Mr Brown, on 09 September 2010 the DOC held 217 women and 12 men for non payment of support as their primary offense. Additionally 2 women and 75 men were held for non payment of support as their secondary offense.
Of the 265 offenders released in 2006 for non payment of support as their primary offense, 113 or 42% had returned to prison by 2009. Of those, three-fourths had returned for the same offense. As Mr Brown noted the re-offend rate for non payment of support is at a much higher rate than the general population.
The total cost of this benefit to children in 2009 was $6.93M.
Cynthia Longest, Deputy Director of the Indiana Child Support Bureau presented information about the involvement of the Department of Childrens' Services involvement in child support payment enforcement. She stated that about $1B annually is processed through ISETS with the federal government paying 66% of the Title IV-D operating costs.
Of the incentive money collected from the federal government 1/3 goes to county prosecutors with the remainder split equally among three other beneficiaries including the county general fund which receives 22% by statute. That means, in essence, that a county can increase their income by having more and greater child support payment orders issued by judges.
For many years there was a mindset that breaking families apart and issuing high child support payment orders was a good method for generating income for local government. However, that attitude is now being shown to be a fallacy and some counties and prosecutors are making efforts to reduce child support payment orders.
This change came about because Indiana ranks 43rd in the county in child support payment collections and now risks losing federal incentive payments. The federal government is changing the reimbursement method from a basis of total support payments ordered to percent collected.
With support payments often being set at 1/3 or more of a parents income many have been placed in the position of facing repossession of a car, eviction from a home or paying the court ordered child support. Given that some prosecutors and judges go after parents who pay 75% just as intensely and those who pay 0% many of those paying 75% found that it was better to pay none and use the money towards maintaining basic necessities.
Prosecutors and judges who have seen partial payment rates dwindle to zero because the consequences are the same are now making efforts to get support orders reduced. If a parent who could pay 50% gets their support order cut in half then the same dollar amount would become 100% in compliance with the support order. This will increase the state's ranking and federal incentive payments.
Representative Summers said she wants fathers/parents to have more access to children. Robert Monday of PACE offered an observation that none of the prior speakers had spoken about increased parenting time or parenting time enforcement as a means of increasing the compliance rate.
Simply put, a parent who has the child is going to have to shelter the child, feed him or her and provide the other needs. There is no way to avoid providing that support. Numerous studies have also concluded that parental compliance with support payments is proportional to parenting time. That is, those who are denied parenting time pay at a much lower rate but increases as the time with the child increases.
I brought to the attention of the committee a program in Virginia called the Intensive Case Monitoring Program. In 2008, the Division of Child Support Enforcement
established the Intensive Case Monitoring Program (ICMP), an innovative measure to maximize child support collections and decrease incarceration due to non-payment. Parents who were at risk of incarceration were considered for the program. The needs of the parent such as education, housing, transportation, employment and mental health care were first met. This then allowed for the parent to start making regular support payments.
Since its inception, the ICMP has expanded to seven judicial districts with 11 judges
participating. Through June 2009, the ICMP has helped 199 participants and collected more than $175,000 in child support – an amount significantly higher than the child support paid by the same population six months prior to participation. Of the 199 participants, 26 graduated and have either begun to make consistent, timely child support payments or have fully paid off arrears and were able to close their DCSE cases.
Most graduates of the program have found stable employment and child support wage withholdings have been issued. Some graduates faced obstacles such as homelessness or disabilities, but with the assistance of case managers the participants overcame such barriers. Over $3.00 in child support is collected from each ICMP participant for every DCSE dollar expended on the program.
Virginia has found an approach that has shown much greater success than Indiana's incarceration approach which has a 42% recidivism rate within three years. Many of the problems faced by offenders prior to incarceration are on exasperated by the incarceration. Employment, housing and addiction issues are usually only compounded through incarceration rather than abated.
Clearly, as Representative Summers has recognized, Indiana needs to change its' approach to child support payment order enforcement. I will be providing additional information about the program to the committee at the next meeting.
The committee will meet for two additional sessions. Wednesday 06 October 2010 at 1:30 p.m. and Wednesday 20 October 2010 at 1:30 p.m. Members of the public are encouraged and invited to attend.
If you need help in modifying your child support payment order or need additional details on the ICCSAC meetings please contact me.
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