By Steve Giegerich
St. Louis Post-Dispatch
ST. LOUIS, Mo. — There was much about the state laws capable of dispatching all deadbeat dads to jail that never made sense to Halbert Sullivan.
“I couldn’t see how the two mixed, because once a felony charge is lodged against you, the odds are then against you getting a good paying job,” said the executive director of the Fathers Support Center in St. Louis.
It’s a paradox about to change, thanks to a new Missouri statute decriminalizing failure to make child support payments for men without prior, serious brushes with the law.
Along with the law’s sponsor, state Sen. Jeff Smith, D-St. Louis, Sullivan hosted a downtown press conference Sunday afternoon to draw attention to the law.
They were joined by a dozen men who have benefited from parenting and counseling programs provided by the support center.
In lieu of a jail sentence for fathers unable to meet their financial obligations, Smith’s plan will enroll the men in job training, vocational and, if necessary, substance abuse programs.
The concept, similar to so-called drug courts that emphasize treatment over punishment, also will be administered by the court system.
“It’s a second chance for these fathers,” Smith said at the press conference, held on the steps of the Civil Courts building. “We won’t give them a third chance, but it’s a second chance for them to get back on their feet.”
Smith compared the old system to “debtor’s prison.”
It was a contradictory process, he pointed out.
On one hand, it had capacity to drag out a working father’s appeal of his support payments for years. On the other hand, it allowed the imposition of jail time if those obligations were not met within six months.
Smith said talks are under way for a timetable to make “fathering courts” operational in St. Louis and across the state.
A second provision in Smith’s bill puts the state apace with DNA testing and technology by stipulating “presumed” fathers be notified of civil proceedings to ascertain paternity.
The law also will compel mothers to provide a child for DNA testing should questions of parentage arise.
Smith both emphasized the legislation was not designed to pit one gender against another.
“We’re not taking sides with men over women. We’re here to do things right,” said Smith.
Copyright 2009 St. Louis Post-Dispatch, Inc.