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15 J. Gender Race & Just. 617 (2012)
Fathers behind Bars: Rethinking Child Support Policy toward Low-Income Noncustodial Fathers and Their Families

handle is hein.journals/jgrj15 and id is 625 raw text is: Fathers Behind Bars: Rethinking Child Support Policy Toward Low-Income Noncustodial Fathers and Their Families Tonya L. Brito* I. INTRODUCTION Since September 2005, Michael Turner has been incarcerated on six different occasions for nonpayment of child support.' His prison terms total over three years in jail.2 He currently owes over $20,000 in unpaid child support, and while he remains in prison on his current sentence, he will accumulate even more debt that he is unable to pay.3 After his release, South Carolina's automated case processing machinery will issue another order to show cause.' At the hearing the court will ask Turner why he should not again be held in contempt because of his failure to pay the outstanding * Professor of Law, University of Wisconsin Law School; Faculty Affiliate, Institute for Research on Poverty, University of Wisconsin; J.D., 1989, Harvard Law School; A.B., 1986, Barnard College. Many thanks to the participants of the 2011 Lutie A. Lytle Black Women Law Faculty Writing Workshop and the Ideas and Innovations in Legal Scholarship Workshop Series, University of Wisconsin Law School, for helpful discussion and comments on earlier versions of this Article, to Lisa Jacobson for her valuable research assistance, to reference librarian Jenny Zook for her excellent assistance, and to Jacqueline Langland and the editorial staff of The Journal of Gender, Race & Justice for their exceptional work in preparing this Article for publication. I am also grateful to the University of Wisconsin for its support of this research through the Murphy Summer Fellowship. Finally, I wish to thank Jacquelyn Boggess and David Pate, Jr., co-founders and co- directors of the Center for Family Policy and Practice (CFFPP), for their research, analysis, and outreach on behalf of low-income fathers of color and their families, and for giving me the opportunity to draft amicus briefs on CFFPP's behalf in the Turner v. Rogers litigation in the U.S. Supreme Court. I. Brief for Petitioner at 8-15, Turner v. Rogers, 131 S. Ct. 2507 (2011) (No. 10-10), 2011 WL 49898 at *8-16. Many poor noncustodial parents lack attorney representation in civil contempt proceedings. See Petition for Writ of Certiorari at 12-19, Turner, 131 S. Ct. 2507 (No. 10-10), 2010 WL 2604155 at 12-18. The lack of civil counsel was challenged on constitutional grounds before the U.S. Supreme Court in Turner. Turner, 131 S. Ct. at 2512. Turner argued that indigent defendants have a constitutional right to appointed counsel in civil contempt proceedings that may result in incarceration. Id. at 2514. 2. Brief for Petitioner, supra note 1. 3. Id. at 25. 4. Id. at 24-25.

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