Parents who fail to pay child support get help with job, not jail Danielle Cain knows that she has been given a second chance, one she hopes will make a difference. Cain was one of about 15 noncustodial parents in court last week for habitually not paying child support. But this time, instead of standing before a fed-up judge ready to send them to jail, she and the others faced Judge Terri Jamison. Jamison told them they would be given an opportunity to improve their lives and the lives of the children they’ve failed to support. Cain and the other parents were the first participants in a program designed to provide job training and educational services to people who are at risk of being sent to jail for not paying child support. Known as Compass, the program started by the Franklin County Child Support Enforcement Agency is the last chance for many of its participants to avoid a felony indictment for nonsupport. Jamison, who was elected to the domestic and juvenile court bench in the fall of 2012, introduced the program to the parents in her courtroom last week. She will divert eligible defendants into the Compass program until the end of the year. It is a trial run to see if the results warrant the creation of a specialized child-support docket, she said. Jamison said it didn’t take her long after she got on the bench to realize that a lot of the people who fail to pay child support have mental-health problems, disabilities, addictions or other problems. She said it was obvious that repeating the cycle of incarceration and nonpayment wouldn’t solve the problem. “To continue to do the same thing and get the same result is insanity and an enormous waste of judicial resources, court resources and jail resources,” Jamison said. By connecting noncustodial parents with community resources such as food, clothing and housing assistance, and with job training and placement services, she hopes to break that cycle of continued nonpayment. By the time someone comes before Jamison, he or she already has refused to work with the county’s child support enforcement agency and missed opportunities to get help, said Susan Brown, the agency’s executive director. The agency does not want to send people to jail, she said, mainly because it doesn’t help the agency do its job, which is to get financial assistance to the children. But, she said, it’s one of the few tools the agency has under the law to force compliance with a support order. Helping people find a job is the key to securing financial assistance from parents, Brown said. But under Ohio law, the agency is not allowed to provide employment help using the state and federal money it receives. She said the Compass program is possible only because the county’s Job and Family Services agency is providing $300,000 in federal money earmarked to assist low-income county residents, including helping them find jobs. The money will be used to contract with three local community organizations — Godman Guild, Goodwill Columbus and Jewish Family Services. Other organizations such as Alvis House and Action for Children also will provide support services, using their existing budgets. Representatives of each organization were in Jamison’s courtroom last week pitching their services to the parents. Each offered such things as help preparing for the high-school equivalency test and with resume-writing and interviewing for a job. Child-support caseworkers interviewed each of the parents and then directed them to the organization that could best help them. Cain, who lives on the East Side, said she hopes the help she gets allows her to land a job. She said she’s been applying for jobs across Columbus, but with never a call-back. Cain said the stereotype of the “deadbeat” parent, who doesn’t care or is unwilling to help their child, doesn’t apply to her or to many of the parents at the hearing. She wants to help her 17-year-old daughter, who has lived with her ex-husband for about 11 years. But she can’t do that without a job, she said. Donald Worly, Cain’s court-appointed attorney, said the program is long overdue. “Taking away their driver’s license, putting them in jail, these things are counterproductive,” Worly said. “These people just need help. It’s in the best interest of everyone — especially the children.” dispatch/content/stories/local/2014/08/03/parents-get-help-with-job-not-jail.html #childsupport #unpaid #job #jailtime #vwd
Posted on: Tue, 12 Aug 2014 00:33:51 +0000