LegiStorm

Summary:

According to recent estimates, about 1.7 million children in the United States have parents who are currently incarcerated in state or federal prisons. Among the approximately 700,000 persons who are released from prison each year about 400,000 of them are fathers and mothers. The current economic crisis together with overcrowded prisons and state budget shortfalls are likely to result in a significant number of inmates convicted of nonviolent offenses getting early release dispensations. How these former inmates reconnect to their families impacts not only the children involved but society at large and is of great interest to Congress and the nation. Ex-offenders re-entering communities face a host of problems, a major one being barriers to employment because of their criminal records. Most employers now conduct background checks, with the result that people are often denied employment or even fired from jobs because of their criminal records. Research indicates that employment and family support are important predictors of an ex-offender's successful re-entry into his or her community. Given that employment opportunities are scarce and may become more limited in the current economy, family support is even more important for formerly incarcerated parents. The Child Support Enforcement (CSE) program is a federal-state program whose mission is to enhance the well-being of children by helping custodial parents and children obtain financial support from the noncustodial parents, including those in prison or who were formerly incarcerated. Child support payments enable parents who do not live with their children to fulfill their financial responsibility to their children by contributing to the payment of childrearing costs. Parents who make regular child support payments are more likely than those who do not to have better family relationships. Also, prisoner re-entry programs and responsible fatherhood programs sometimes help noncustodial parents establish positive, productive connections to their children. Research indicates that positive family relationships increase family stability and can help reduce recidivism. Connecting children to their noncustodial parents has become a goal of federal social policy. Promoting coordination among federal and state programs may help programs optimize their resources. Some prisons and local communities are helping noncustodial parents acknowledge their child support responsibilities by offering parenting programs, informational sessions on how to deal with the CSE agency, conflict-resolution classes, and job readiness preparation. Research highlights the common ground between the prison system and the CSE system. For example, studies show that family support is one of the key factors in lowering the probability that ex-offenders will return to prison and research further indicates that being involved in the lives of one's children promotes responsible behavior, such as making regular child support payments and being productive citizens. Federally-mandated program coordination in certain areas may be one way to increase child support collections and simultaneously reduce recidivism. This report focuses on the CSE program. It examines the CSE program within the context of large numbers of former inmates re-entering local communities. It raises several issues related to noncustodial parents who are ex-offenders (i.e., former inmates). The report also presents policy options that could help increase child support collections from low-income noncustodial parents, some of whom are former inmates. A by-product of increased child support collections could be a positive, productive relationship between ex-offenders and their children, which could result in lower recidivism rates among inmates who are noncustodial parents. This report will not be updated.