Indiana Custodial Rights Advocates

Testimony of Stuart Showalter, Executive Director – Indiana Custodial Rights Advocates

I have provided a handout to you with detailed information from Virginia’s Intensive Case Monitoring Program which has enrollees who are child support obligors at risk of incarceration. The information is from their latest report, August 2010, which I obtained from Glenn Stratton, Program Administrative Manager for the Division of Child Support Enforcement. I have included his contact details for you.

The Program
This program began in 2008 in a small number of jurisdictions and has been expanding since. Through this reporting period there have been 521 participants. 188 are active, 172 have been found non-compliant and removed while 161 have graduated. A graduate is one who has been fully served by the program, has paid arrears in full or is no longer obliged to pay child support.

The Participants
Most of the participants, 66%, report being unemployed. Of the barriers identified only 10% were reported as being an attitude problem. Less than half are high school graduates or above. Just over half attended at least 75% of their case management meetings while just under one fourth attended 25% or less.

The Results
These figures compare the pre-enrollment payments which is the average of the first 6 of the 7 months prior to enrollment to the post enrollment average. Those currently enrolled are paying 46% more and those who have graduated are paying 211% more. The drop-outs are the most interesting. They are paying 244% more.

Analysis
The dropped participants paid the least prior to participation and are paying the least following but the increase is significant. Average obligation figures for all classes of participants were not provided so I can’t tell you where the dropped participants are in comparison to what they are ordered to pay. However, there must have been some benefit to them from the program or it could be the threat of incarceration that is compelling their increased compliance. The data provided does show that the average payments of graduates is 116% of their support order which means they are paying current and some of the arrears.

I suspect that the current participants having the lowest rate of increase is due to having not fully realized the benefits of the program such as education and employment.

Conclusion
Although it is clear that all participants in this program have shown significant improvement it does not show a cross-sample of the entire population ordered to pay support since these participants were individually selected. But, all had to be in threat of incarceration to qualify. The problems identified don’t demonstrate that these participants are dead beats or snubbing the system. The graduates were paying an average of 37% of their obligation prior to participation. Only 10% were identified as having an attitude problem. The remainder are what I am sure we are familiar with; lack of education, employment and community support.

In my experiences I have found that most parents who are not paying support fully aren’t doing so just so they can live the high life. Many have employment issues, some believe they must be taken back to court to get a modification and don’t realize that they can and should request it when circumstances change. Some have seen that regardless of what is paid their children are still being neglected while the other parent lives the high life.

I believe the low compliance rate needs to be confronted from many directions. Virginia’s program should clearly be studied and modeled. Educating obligors and assisting them with modifications is another. Structuring parenting time plans so that the parents are contributing actual support has been shown to provide better support for the children and compliance with the court orders. Better enforcement of parenting time violations in parity with support payment violations would help end the cycle of parents withholding parenting time because of noncompliance with support and withholding support because of noncompliance with parenting time.

I avail myself to you to do further study of this or any issue and could try contacting the participating judges for feedback if you would like.

Thank you-

Stuart Showalter
P.O.B. 374
Lebanon, IN 46052-0374
Showalter@InCRA.info
317.474.3143