South Carolina child support policy and the Walter Scott connection

Submitted by el cid on Sun, 2015-04-12 13:06

Story here. A good review of the South Carolina child support system. Excerpt:

'But Scott, who was killed on Saturday by police officer Michael Slager in North Charleston, South Carolina, had also long struggled to pay child support. In 2008, he went to jail for a full six months after falling behind by $6,800 in child support payments, according to The Associated Press. Scott spent one night in jail in both 2011 and 2012, again because he owed thousands in child support. At the time of Scott’s death, there was a warrant out for his arrest due to failure to make child support payments. (Scott also had a history of convictions and arrests for other offenses, according to The Post And Courier, a Charleston paper.)

The knowledge of the arrest warrant for failed payments is likely what spurred Scott to run from Slager on Saturday during a traffic stop over a broken taillight.
...
In 2009, Patterson conducted a survey of 33 county jails in South Carolina, which found that one out of every eight inmates -- or 13.2 percent of the inmate population -- was behind bars for contempt of civil court after falling behind on child support payments. In Charleston County, where Walter owed his back payments on child support, Patterson’s survey found that over 15 percent of inmates had been imprisoned for not paying child support. In a handful of the other counties studied, the figure was as high as 20 percent.

Patterson told The Huffington Post in an interview that most states are more forgiving than South Carolina when it comes to child support payments. In general, there is no set number of days after which the debtor automatically goes to a contempt hearing.

“There's a more flexible process [in other states],” she said. “It's less likely you'll go the contempt route. You may enter a payment agreement, or may determine there's no money. The person may pay up without going through the judicial process."

The professor said she has found only one other jurisdiction in the country -- the 9th Judicial District of New Mexico -- whose rules are as stringent as South Carolina’s.'

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Comments

Walter Scott was another in a long history of runaway slaves that have been killed in South Carolina and the South--and even in the North, where slavery was sometimes practiced.

He was forced to work and turn over his earning to someone else--to the mother or to the government.

If he didn't have the money, he went to jail.

If that's not a slave, what is?

Of course, I've heard that a lot of black fathers have millions stashed away in offshore banks and just refuse to pay child support out of spite. Or the government seems to think so. But I've learned not to believe everything I hear.

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Submitted by el cid on Mon, 2015-04-13 15:45

When it comes to child support, I am all for jailing someone who is willfully not paying (avoiding, cheating the system, etc). My family's business hires "day laborers." We have men come in almost weekly asking if we will pay them "under the table" so they can avoid child support.

I have an ex who avoids paying. After promising to care for his kids if pregnancy occurred, he left me while I was pregnant with our second child. He had an extremely high income and the verbal agreement was he would continue to pay mortgage on the home where me and the kids lived, but he nearly let the home go into foreclosure. He had not paid because he "forgot". I am glad I was able to go to the courts and force him to honor his responsibilities back then.

Laws and policies regarding custody, child support, and enforcement should be applied fairly among mothers and fathers (in absence of a pre-arranged agreement, I would like to see fathers get equal opportunity for full custody, if shared custody is not an option.) I am all for a society which expects able parents to care for their children and using the threat of jail if they do not.

According to another article it sounds like Mr. Scott had other issues like inability to hold a job, drugs, alcohol and the shame caused him to withdraw from his kids. I do think society needs to have more sympathy for these situations and policies in place to keep fathers close to their children even when they cannot pay support. There is evidence to suggest that man who have close relationships with their kids overcome or never develop alcohol and drug problems.

At this time I do not know if threat of jail for Mr. Scott for non-payment of child support would be something I would agree with or not; but he certainly did not deserve to be gunned down like he was.

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Submitted by Kris on Mon, 2015-04-13 22:54

Personally, I feel child support should not exist for the vast majority of fathers. The only instance in which that should take place is if the father signed a contract with the mother saying he would pay her to take care of the children for any amount of time more than half. The children should be verified as actually being his via dna testing as well. Forcing men to have parental responsibilities to children they don't want is wrong, since women can opt out of parenthood pretty much any time they choose.

Either that, or you can force women into the boat men are in now, and take away their reproductive rights. . .

Sadly, I doubt that this area will be an even playing field any time soon.

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Submitted by xtrnl on Mon, 2015-04-13 23:13