For Some In Bergen County Longterm Unemployment May Mean Long Term Jail

Story here. This story shows very clearly that child support enforcement is not about finding rich guys with offshore bank accounts who refuse to meet their obligations. It's more like modern slavery. Excerpt:

'Back in December over 90,000 people in New Jersey saw an end to their unemployment with the expiration of federal emergency benefits. This was the highest share of any state. Another 89,000 New Jersey residents are also set to lose their benefits during the first six months of 2014 as 63 weeks of unemployment is shrinking to 26 according to a report published by the House of Representatives' Ways and Means Committee.

For the Bergen County Jail this means big business.

In Bergen County being unemployed may get you thrown in jail. Bergen County residents [Ed.: read "residents" and all subsequent similar references as "divorced dads", and it will be far more accurate] who are jobless and have fallen behind on child support or alimony payments face indefinite incarceration in the Bergen County Jail’s “Work Release” program.

Brought before a judge every two weeks unemployed parents incarcerated in the “work release” program are required to report their efforts in finding a job. Being unemployed in Superior Court in Bergen County is considered to be by choice and puts you in contempt of court.

For the long term unemployed this may mean a long term in jail.

Parents incarcerated in the Bergen County Jail’s “work release” are required to pay the County of Bergen $ 10.00 per day for “room and board” - $50 per week. For some an additional $70 per week is due to the County for a GPS tracking bracelet.

Kevin Macfie, a Bergen County father, has been incarcerated over 400 days since he was arrested for child support arrears in January 2013. Macfie spent another 344 days incarcerated between December 2011 and November 2012. Macfie has only been a free man for 55 days in the past two years and during part of that time he was the subject of an arrest warrant which is automatically issued when two support payments are missed.

Macfie was being held in the Bergen County Jail for over a year with the court demanding he pay $7,500 to be released. Recently his “condition of release” was reduced to $1,000 which Macfie does not have. “It might as well be $10,000” Macfie told the Bergen Dispatch. If he could find employment Macfie would need to save the $1,000 plus pay his weekly support amount of $284 plus the work release fees before being released.

“I have not seen my son in years” Macfie told the Bergen Dispatch “I don’t expect to ever get out of here. I lost my car, my apartment and all of my belongings. I wouldn’t know what to do if I did get out.”'