Probably only a stunt, but still a good idea
Friday, August 22nd, 2008 By Mike Maurer
State. Rep. Ted Celeste has a good idea: don’t send deadbeat dads to prison. Send them to community corrections instead.
It’d be easy enough to lump this in with traditional Democrat opposition to punishing criminals, and of course establishing any program or option creates an incentive to expand it unjustifiably, allowing people to squeeze into it who ought not. But the courts are experimenting with fixing themselves–and that’s certainly needed–by establishing drug courts and mental health courts. Deadbeat dads–sure, it’s parents, but it’s dads–seems likely to be not the run of the mill criminal problem.
Of course, this is closing the door after the horse is gone. The real problem is the sloppy legal system by which these dads’ criminal acts accumulated. Most of these guys are marginal workers who entered poorly defined relationships and, no surprise, ended up divorced, through their own dysfunction and that of their wives. It doesn’t solve the problem by establishing mythical child support figures that bear no real relation to the payor’s productive capacity, and then calling the guy a criminal when the obvious, predictable result happens. If the financial arrangement were reversed between the parents, there wouldn’t be much real difference in care of the children, and the only change would be the other parent would be the criminal.
So, this is an area that needs work, and Celeste’s idea would help. But the real fix is further up the pipeline. Take a look at organizations such as judgepedia.org, which are working to bring accountability to the judiciary, too.
Tags: celeste, child support, courts
