It makes me very sad and also angry to read the March 24th Boston Globe story, “MA man awaiting court hearing found dead in cell.”
We do not throw broke people in jail if they can’t pay their mortgage, if they can’t pay their car payments and if they can’t make their credit card payments. Debtors prisons were eliminated years ago. However, if you are a dead broke father and you can’t pay your child support, they do throw you in jail. This is wrong.
Dead broke fathers in jail have no hope to be able to pay their child support and also are often torn from their children. A little secret of society is that divorced men who are separated from their children have one of the highest rate of suicides. While society may say so what, they should not. When a parent commits suicide, it puts the child of this parent at great risk for suicide themselves.
We should all mourn the sad loss of David Desruisseau and also morn for his children. The punishment imposed upon Mr. Desrusiseau violates the Constitution for Cruel and Unusual punishment. It must stop. The sad part is that the Family and Probate System, the Department of Revenue and the Criminal Justice system does not even keep track of the number of non violent dads thrown in prisons, at the cost to the Commonwealth at about $35,000 per year. Now we know their is another hidden cost, the life of this dad and other dads and their children too. It is time to help dads who are in financial trouble, and stop putting them in jail.
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Which is why in these tough economic times that we demand justice for everyone. This is a prime case of where what we believed was just and right was wrong because we have systems that are unable to see the forest from the trees. May he rest in peace and may we all learn the lesson that people do not always fit in a box.
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p>As Usual Just my Opinion
Seen too many “broke” dads who can’t pay their child support because they need to make the payment on their Mercedes, or structure their finances in such a way that they never have to write a check to some hated woman, and the children be damned.
You’re committing the same fallacy as the people who go on about ‘welfare queens.’ There being bad fathers who shirk their obligations is not an argument for mistreating fathers genuinely unable to meet those obligations.
WoburnDem, CentralMassDad, & kirth, you are all right. It’s a very difficult situation in so many ways. The courts do not help with the one size fits all rulings they apply. It can be a devastating experience for Fathers, Mothers, and most especially for the children. The horror stories are all over the place. Love the “kill your family then kill yourself” one. That one is always fun to come across. Or Mother falsely accuses Father of child molestation, or Father goes to Mom’s work, parks in parking lot and sets the car on fire with the children in it. I think that one happened right in Springfield or Chicopee. It’s so incredibly depressing.
Can’t we simply attach their pay? If someone is behind on child support and they have a job there is no need to escalate this, simply take it out of their pay and be done with it. If they don’t have a job they don’t have any money, it seems simple, am I missing something?
It’s a tough chase to catch up to the dad who doesn’t want to be catch up with. The DOR has wage ganishment for child support, but it takes time to find the Dad if he moves from job to job.
My sympathy will be reserved for the kids who are abandoned.