We have previously written on this blog about the difficulty some parents face in making child support payments, and how that burden is often multiplied when they are incarcerated for defaulting on payments. Incarceration can seriously affect a parent's ability to manage child support payments, and for many it is a sure way to increasing child support debt load.

The Associated Press reports that authorities in Connecticut are now establishing a way to assist incarcerated parents manage child support payments while they are locked up.

Back in 2006, the state of Connecticut began providing to parents with over three years left on their sentences information on how to get their child support orders modified. Beginning this year, though, Connecticut is distributing that information to inmates who are just beginning their incarceration.

Jessica Pearson, the director of the Center for Policy Research has said that around half of the inmates in state and federal prisons are parents with children under the age of 18, and half of those are active child support cases. According to the Connecticut Judicial Branch, 36 percent of its active child support cases involve over 44,000 non-custodial parents who were or currently are incarcerated. On a national scale, non-custodial parents entering incarceration owe roughly $10,000 of child support. Upon leaving, they have an average debt of $20,000.

A number of states actually forgive some of the debt of former inmates who make consistent support payment for a certain amount of time.

Source: NCB Connecticut, "Inmate Struggle With Child Support Payments," Brian Coleman, 2 May 2011