Inside the world of 'deadbeat dads': In and out of jail, unable or unwilling to pay

Article here. Excerpt:

'Kevin Macfie owes more than $60,000 in child support, and he's spent most of the past three years at the Bergen County Jail as authorities have tried to get him to pay up.

His 871 nights and weekends behind bars have cost taxpayers more than $87,000.

During that time, he's paid less than $15,000 in child support, much of it garnisheed from unemployment benefits, which have long since run out. Homeless, jobless and struggling with alcoholism, there's little sign he will ever pay what he owes.

Macfie has had plenty of company in jail. Last year, more than 1,800 men and women were incarcerated or sentenced to home confinement with ankle bracelets in Bergen and Passaic counties for failing to pay child support. They and thousands of others statewide cycle in and out of a court system whose mission is to get money from people who claim they just don't have any.

It's an obscure world, known mostly to the probation officers, jail deputies, divorce attorneys and family court judges who must wade through the tales of broken blue- and white-collar lives and the many excuses the parents offer for why they aren't providing for their kids.

Across the state, authorities currently have 33,000 active arrest warrants for parents behind on their payments. Some parents are regularly picked up and jailed for weeks or months at a stretch, as they try the patience of judges as well as ex-spouses with their stories of woe. In Bergen County, the jail has a special 65-bed bunkhouse for fathers behind on payments.'