Shaming 'Deadbeat Dads' in the Paper

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MELISSA BLOCK, host:

From NPR News, this is ALL THINGS CONSIDERED. I'm Melissa Block.

MICHELE NORRIS, host:

And I'm Michele Norris.

When it comes to finding parents who are delinquent in paying child support, apparently shame pays. That's the conclusion in Louisville, Kentucky, where the Jefferson County attorney's office placed an ad in The Courier-Journal on Sunday listing the names of more than 1,000 parents who owed child support. It's the latest creative experiment by state and local governments to clear a backlog of child support payments. Since the ad in Louisville appeared, the phones have been ringing non-stop with tips, and the paper has also heard from several leaders who say the government should not be in the business of humiliating citizens. Irv Maze is a Jefferson County attorney, and he joins us now.

Mr. Maze, what's happened since the ad appeared on Sunday?

Mr. IRV MAZE (Attorney, Jefferson County, Kentucky): Well, I take issue with what you said. It's not a matter of shame. It's a matter of asking the public for help. Many times individuals come to a larger city and get lost. We have eight full-time detectives that we send out to look for individuals, and, after all, we are handling 67,000 cases. So in that process there are some cases that are far more difficult than others.

But there does come a point in time that you ask the public for help. And what we did--we compiled a list of the most egregious offenders, asked the public to call us if they had any additional information. We were looking for places of employment, locations where they're now living or, in some instances, where they're now hiding. And we have received over 200 phone calls in the last two days with information that we are now pursuing. Just as we're doing this interview, we had an individual walk in who turned himself in--had had an outstanding arrest warrant for him for some time.

NORRIS: So once you find people, do they have to make one lump sum payment, or do you work out some sort of arrangement?

Mr. MAZE: Actually just got a e-mail this morning and responded to it. Individual, female, had realized that she was behind--saw her name in the paper--wanted to make arrangements with us. In this case, I had an employee who put her in touch with an employment agency. So we actually encourage individuals to apply for the various social services that are out there because the goal of this program is to get money to the children. But I've said before--and I think it's accurate--there is a difference between being dead broke and deadbeat. And it's our goal to find out which case we're actually dealing with. And if you're a deadbeat, we'll go one way in court. If you're dead broke, we'll work with you.

NORRIS: Now when we hear the word deadbeat, we often hear the word `dad' after that.

Mr. MAZE: Oh, no.

NORRIS: Are all the people on this list men? Are they all fathers?

Mr. MAZE: No. In fact, about eight years ago I gave that up in my vernacular. I no longer refer to--I refer to them as deadbeat or dead broke parents. About 8 percent of the names that are on this list are women.

NORRIS: There are those who criticize this program, particularly fathers' rights advocates.

Mr. MAZE: Sure.

NORRIS: They say this stigmatizes fathers. And they argue that some men withhold support payments as a form of leverage because the mothers won't allow visitation. And they say that the state or the county should publish a list of moms who don't let dads see their children. Do they have a point?

Mr. MAZE: That is so unfair to mix visitation and child support. Kentucky's law has been consistent for 75 years. The two are never mixed. If you have a disagreement, I'll be the first one to encourage an individual to go back in the court, bring this to the attention of the judge. If there are misdeeds taking place on visitation, the court is set up--our family court is set up to handle disputes such as that. But you don't penalize the child by withholding your child support.

NORRIS: Mr. Maze, thanks so much for talking to us.

Mr. MAZE: Uh-huh, thank you.

NORRIS: Irv Maze is a Jefferson County attorney.

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