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Are the cops violating our Constitutional rights when
they arrest unemployed people for not paying child support?
I believe article 2 section 18 of the Arizona Constitution says you can't be jailed for not paying your debts. 18. Imprisonment for debtIf that is true then the police are routine violating people constitutional right when they arrest them for not paying child support. Gilbert dad held in $11,000 child-support case by JJ Hensley - Aug. 16, 2011 12:00 AM The Arizona Republic Every month, the Maricopa County Sheriff's Office receives about 30 warrants for the arrest of parents who have not paid their child support. On Monday, Barry Boyd's name was on one of those court documents. By midafternoon, sheriff's deputies had the 53-year-old Gilbert resident in custody on a warrant that claimed Boyd owes more than $11,000 in back child support to one of his ex-wives. Boyd said his attempts to provide court-ordered support for his two ex-wives and six children have been thwarted by the economy, which has left the construction worker unemployed for the better part of two years. To find work, Boyd had turned his attention to Texas. But without the ability to extradite mothers and fathers who leave Arizona without paying child support, sheriff's deputies made the decision to arrest Boyd before he could leave. "It's a tough economy right now," Boyd said. "It's tough on a lot of guys." In 2010, the Department of Economic Security processed more than $680 million in court-ordered child-support payments, an increase of 3 percent from the prior year, according to the agency. State officials also frequently work with their counterparts in other states, without extraditing the parents, to enforce child-support payments after the mothers and fathers have moved. The Sheriff's Office has contributed to that total for the past four years through a jail-screening program that cross-references inmate information with DES records. Inmates who are found to owe child support have funds garnisheed from their jail accounts. This has brought in nearly $400,000 in child-support payments. |