Law Commons^™

Deadbeats, Deadbrokes, And Prisoners, Ann Cammett

Scholarly Works

Historically, child support policy has targeted absent parents with aggressive enforcement measures. Such an approach is based on an economic resource model that is increasingly irrelevant, even counterproductive, for many low-income families. Specifically, modern day mass incarceration has radically skewed the paradigm on which the child support system is based, removing millions of parents from the formal economy entirely, diminishing their income opportunities after release, and rendering them ineffective economic actors. Such a flawed policy approach creates unintended consequences for the children of these parents by compromising a core non-monetary goal of child support system – parent-child engagement – as …

The Impact Of The Adoption And Safe Families Act On Children Of Incarcerated Parents, Arlene F. Lee, Philip Genty, Mimi Laver Child Welfare League Of America

Faculty Scholarship

On November 9, 1997, President Bill Clinton signed the Adoption and Safe Families Act of 1997 (ASFA) to improve the safety of children, to promote adoption and other permanent homes for children, and to support families. The changes in ASFA are important to ensure the safety of children and increase their likelihood of placement in permanent homes. The change that requires close examination is the timeline for initiating the termination of parental rights (TPR) proceedings. Many people have questioned whether these changes, if applied in their strictest terms, have had a detrimental effect on children of prisoners, because a large …

Expanding Collateral Sanctions: The Hidden Costs Of Aggressive Child Support Enforcement Against Incarcerated Parents, Ann Cammett

Scholarly Works

Legal barriers or "collateral consequences" arising from criminal convictions came to the forefront of the legal and policy discourse at the dawn of the twenty-first century, as the population of people with criminal convictions skyrocketed. These barriers act as restrictions to post-incarceration reentry into society, including the resumption of employment, occupational licensing, access to housing and public benefits, driving privileges, educational loans, immigration, voting rights, and other means of economic survival and civic re-engagement.

What is barely examined are the ways in which these barriers affect family law, specifically in the area of child support and the debt accrued by …

Making Work Pay: Promoting Employment And Better Child Support Outcomes For Low-Income And Incarcerated Parents, Ann Cammett

Scholarly Works

The New Jersey Institute for Social Justice prepared this report in response to concerns about child support debt—in particular as it creates a barrier to employment for low-income parents and works at cross-purposes with the goals of the child support program. Drawing on examples from other states, this report identifies a range of policies that inform child support practice in New Jersey and offers administrative, legislative, and programmatic solutions to address child support arrears owed by low-income and incarcerated parents.

Damage To Family Relationships As A Collateral Consequence Of Parental Incarceration, Philip Genty

Faculty Scholarship

The most obvious and perhaps most serious collateral consequence of incarceration is family separation. Imprisonment undermines families and has a detrimental impact upon children, caretakers, and the communities in which they live. Unlike other collateral consequences, family separation has an irreversible impact upon both parents and children. The time apart is lost forever because a childhood can never be recovered.

This Essay will review the available statistical information about incarcerated parents and their children and discuss the detrimental effects of parental incarceration upon families. The Essay will conclude with some reflections about why the adverse consequences of incarceration for prisoners' …

Procedural Due Process Rights Of Incarcerated Parents In Termination Of Parental Rights Proceedings: A Fifty State Analysis, Philip Genty

Faculty Scholarship

Disruption of families through incarceration of parents has become an increasingly serious problem over the past decade. The prison population has grown dramatically, and for women prisoners the increases in the population are particularly striking. From 1980 through 1990, the number of women incarcerated in state and federal prisons increased from 13,420 to 43,845, an increase of 227 percent. In a single year, from 1988 to 1989, the number of incarcerated women increased by 24.4 percent. In 1990 there were an additional 37,844 women in local jails. For men the prison population increased by 130 percent from 316,401 to 727,398 …