MSNBC recently ran a story discussing an issue we have previously written about on this blog, namely, the incarceration of parents who are unable to pay their child support payments.

As we have noted previously, the problem is rather widespread. Across the country, thousands of "deadbeat" parents-mostly men-are put in jail every year for failing to pay court-ordered child support. The majority of these individuals are jailed for refusing to pay what they feel is an unfair amount, but that isn't always the case. Many are incarcerated despite their inability to pay. And oftentimes they don't have an attorney to help them.

Some of these individuals spend over a year in jail because of their inability to pay child support. The practice of incarcerating indigent parents has drawn criticism from those who say it treats poor and unemployed parents unfairly. They also point out that, under federal law, incarceration should only take place for a willful violation of a court order.

Incarceration is intended to be an impetus for delinquent parents to pay their child support obligations. Judges may place such individuals in jail without a trial because child support delinquency is considered a civil matter, and defendants in such cases do not have the same constitutional protections as criminal defendants. As a result, states have a good deal of freedom to determine the kinds of protections defendants in these cases receive. In five states-Georgia, Maine, South Carolina, Ohio, and Florida-defendants in these matters do not have the right to an attorney.

A recent U.S Supreme Court decision addressed the issue of whether indigent parents facing incarceration for failure to pay child support have a right to an attorney. The decision, which wasn't favorable for parents, confirmed that states are not required to provide legal representation for delinquent parents.

In our next post, we'll continue looking at this topic.

Source: MSNBC, "Unable to pay child support, poor parents land behind bars," Mike Brunker, Sep 12, 2011.