Can Mentoring Stop Dads From Turning Deadbeat?

With the nation facing dismally low rates of payment on child support orders, states have tried everything to get deadbeat parents to pay up, including throwing them in jail. Now, officials in some states are considering a new idea — instead of prison, why not help parents get jobs?

• Ohio program to divert parents away from prison, teach life skills
• Tough economy sinking child support payment rates
• Federal program has similar goals of building parenting skills

Early Intervention

A new program in Lucas County, Ohio is giving deadbeat fathers a choice: Go directly to jail, or sign up for life skills and job placement training as part of the Young Fathers Early Intervention Program. The initiative targets men between the ages of 18 and 24, many of whom have troubled pasts and questionable futures, lacking basic education and already boasting a history of run-ins with the law.

But the best way to ensure the men will never make payments to support their children is to lock them up and throw away the key. “Just punishing [them] hasn’t been working,” County Commissioner Tina Skeldon Wozniak told the Toledo Blade.

Instead dads get a chance to learn parenting skills, take advice on how to maintain healthy relationships with the childrens’ mothers, and hopefully get help finding a job. Participants are still responsible for paying the back support they owe in full.

“Courts are trying to hold off on the most severe penalties, which result in loss of income or loss of employment,” says Cleveland-based family law attorney Carl Murway, a member of the American Academy of Matrimonial Lawyers. “The ideal approach allows people to be gainfully employed, pay support and be good parents.”

A Perfect Storm

Attorney Carl Murway

The Lucas County program is a response to a big dip in child support payment rates. Even in the best of times, fewer than 50 percent of custodial parents receive their full allotment of support payments. With the sagging economy, the number has dipped down to only 41.2 percent.

Locally, of the 1,800 fathers in Lucas County who are supposed to be paying support, only 600 do.

It’s a perfect storm of factors sabotaging parents’ efforts to provide for their children– custodial and non-custodial parents alike are out of work or suffering from stagnating wages. A non-custodial parent who isn’t working probably can’t make support payments, and coercion is futile– you can’t get blood from a stone, and you can’t get money from someone who’s broke.

“These programs are really coming about because of the high unemployment rate, especially in traditional manufacturing sectors in Ohio,” Murway says. “If people miss even a few days of work because they are sentenced to three days of jail, they might get out without a job. Judges are aware of that, and are attempting to be more creative in sentencing.”

Responsible Fatherhood

Murway has heard of other mentoring programs in Ohio, most of them relatively new, in response to the economic downturn. “I think courts are very frustrated, frankly, and are trying different things to get more compliance,” he says. “Whether they’re working or not working is yet to be seen.” Diversion and parenting skills programs can also be found elsewhere throughout the country:

• A similar program in Washington, D.C. has helped 50 men who owe support and are reentering society from prison since 2008.
• A federal National Responsible Fatherhood initiative has funded programs in a number of states promoting fathers being more involved in their childrens’ lives, including efforts to increase support compliance.
• Colorado’s “Be There For Your Kids” website gives information on a host of fatherhood-related issues, including job placement and resources on paying support orders.

Ultimately, while the efforts are aimed at parents, the end goal is to create a better life for children, who have no say in divorce or the economy but are left high and dry both financially and emotionally when a parent takes off. “It’s more likely for someone who has a job, pays support, and feels good about themselves to have a good relationship with the child,” Murway says.