Oregon Shows its Heart by Arresting 'Delinquent' Parents

How does Oregon benefit by taking a parent who can't pay their bills, and placing them in an overcrowded taxpayer funded jail?

Salem-News.com

(SALEM, Ore.) - Oregon's Attorney General says arrests of moms and dads in the Portland area and a new Website are part of an effort to raise awareness about the importance of child support collection in Oregon.

I can only imagine how many hundreds of thousands of dollars were spent on their new online presence; probably something Salem-News.com could have done for less than a grand; but then we don't have a tax base to operate with and thus have to be financially astute.

Of course that is the whole tone of the AG's new press release: financial responsibility.

Appreciate that this top legal agency for Oregon doesn't give two cents about the rampant racial and criminal corruption that has a hold on our prison system like Superglue.

We report on this subject constantly, endless thousands are increasingly aware of the very serious crimes taking place within Oregon's penal system since the 1970's without abatement, and yet this is the way Oregon's heavily funded AG's office uses its time and energy; getting federal agents to go after parents who are behind in child support.

I suspect that many in Oregon don't even realize that people here are arrested for being behind in child support. No children are directly suffering in this event; these are debts that the state believes it is owed because, generally, one of the parents was on state aid. It is about recouping bucks for the state coffers.

Nothing like chasing California's tail I guess. That state has been arresting parents for decades.

From the AG's press release:

The Oregon Department of Justice led an effort to arrest delinquent parents who were judged able to pay to highlight Child Support Awareness Month.

“Collecting child support is a crucial job because it makes a major difference in the lives of nearly 250,000 children in Oregon,” said Attorney General Kroger.

“I want to thank the Portland Police Bureau and the U.S. Marshals Service for their outstanding work on this case.”

Nice, so now we are using federal agents to arrest parents who owe the state a few thousand bucks. It isn't hard to see the direction we are going in. It is frightening to know that these are the priorities. Again, we know there are far more pressing matters for any agency charged with making Oregon legal and safe.

From the press release:

The Department of Justice also unveiled an extensive overhaul to the Child Support Program’s website. The information on www.oregonchildsupport.gov has been completely rewritten and reorganized. The new site is easier to navigate, more informative and more helpful for the parents, employers and professionals who rely on it for case information and services.

That means that all of the money spent establishing this super important online presence for Oregon was poorly spent. This state can't get it right the first time, but were the people who originally designed the site; who lacked the skill to do it properly, reprimanded?

What kind of people are making decisions in these areas?

This nation has been in a high tech mode for decades; is it not possible to design a Website properly in the first place?

It looks like there is one high tech aspect to the new plan, but it is once again all for money; so the state can shake working Oregonian parents loose of a few more dollars:

From the press release:

Employers were directly responsible for gathering more than 70 percent of the $336 million in child support collected in fiscal year 2009. In October 2009, the Division of Child Support (DCS) was awarded an $87,483 grant from the U.S. Office of Child Support Enforcement and an additional $199,099 in federal matching funds to acquire technology that will improve the process of collecting child support from employers. Making it as convenient as possible for employers to work with the Oregon Child Support Program is a top priority.

The new website better highlights services available to families to help them provide support to their children. Child support is more likely to be paid when families are engaged early in a process they find convenient and easy. The website redesign is a significant step toward adding more online services, such as interactive forms and alternative payment methods.

The vast majority of child support in Oregon is collected voluntarily, but unfortunately some parents refuse to meet their obligations to financially support their children. In those cases, the Department of Justice and local District Attorneys are forced to take additional legal action.

"Forced" is a fancy word for "chooses" and this state has so many bitter problems tied to its welfare program, the seizures of children from homes for needless reasons, etc., that it needs to address.

Instead the energy is directed on garnishing wages, which affects and impacts hard to find employment during the nation's worst recession since the 1930's.

This is a cruel time and Oregon is going after its own citizens in increasing ways. This operation involving numerous police and federal agents, resulted in exactly five arrests. Salem-News.com will not publish the names of the individuals because the whole notion of this 'operation' seem ridiculous, and we care about people. I will tell you that they owed between seven and seventeen thousand dollars, and there were both mothers and fathers arrested.

I guess I just know too many horror stories and that certainly has an impact in my thinking. I have in the last week, watched a friend suddenly fall under a child support order. I have seen mothers have to deal with this because their wealthy, abusive ex-husbands can easily win cases because they simply hire more expensive lawyers. Child support is often levied on parents who in all fairness, should not have to pay it.

According to Kroger's press release:

Wednesday’s arrest sweep was conducted by the Department of Justice, the U.S. Marshals Service and the Portland Police Bureau. The sweep targeted 15 parents in Multnomah County who are the subject of arrest warrants issued by a judge because they failed to appear in court to explain their refusal to pay court-ordered child support. All of the arrestees face maximum sentences of up to six months in jail plus full payment of their overdue obligations to their children.

It seems odd that if the problem with these parents is so severe, that this statement was included with the news release:

The Division of Child Support is incredibly efficient; for every $1 it receives from the Oregon Legislature, it collects $38 for parents who are raising their kids.

Tim King: Salem-News.com Editor and Writer

Tim King is a former U.S. Marine with twenty years of experience on the west coast as a television news producer, photojournalist, reporter and assignment editor. In addition to his role as a war correspondent, this Los Angeles native serves as Salem-News.com's Executive News Editor. Tim spent the winter of 2006/07 covering the war in Afghanistan, and he was in Iraq over the summer of 2008, reporting from the war while embedded with both the U.S. Army and the Marines.

Tim holds numerous awards for reporting, photography, writing and editing, including the Oregon AP Award for Spot News Photographer of the Year (2004), first place Electronic Media Award in Spot News, Las Vegas, (1998), Oregon AP Cooperation Award (1991); and several others including the 2005 Red Cross Good Neighborhood Award for reporting. Tim has several years of experience in network affiliate news TV stations, having worked as a reporter and photographer at NBC, ABC and FOX stations in Arizona, Nevada and Oregon. Serving the community in very real terms, Salem-News.com is the nation's only truly independent high traffic news Website. As News Editor, Tim among other things, is responsible for publishing the original content of 65 Salem-News.com writers. He reminds viewers that emails are easily missed and urges those trying to reach him, to please send a second email if the first goes unanswered. You can send Tim an email at this address: newsroom@salem-news.com