Longitudinal Associations among Child Support Debt, Employment, and Recidivism after Prison

“obligations affect former prisoners as the backdrop (Bannon et al. 2010; Cammett 2010; Harris et al. 2010), the current study leverages a multistate, longitudinal sample of THE SOCIOLOGICAL QUARTERLY 145”

“ment and labor force participation (Holzer et al. 2005; Miller andMincy 2012; Pirog, Klotz, and Byers 1998; Pirog and Ziol-Guest 2006).”

“…meet basic needs or provide for family members, and can result in strained family relationships and higher recidivism rates (Cammet, 2006; Cancian, Meyer, & R., 2018; Holzer, Offner, & Sorensen, 2005; McLeod & Gottlieb, 2018; Roman & Link, 2017; Smoyer, Blankenship, & Macintosh, 2009; Zatz, 2016).”

“…this issue statistically, we performed standard checks to identify patterns of missingness and, similar to other recent analyses of the SVORI data (Link & Roman, 2017; Stansfield, Mowen, O’Connor, & Boman, 2016) did not find significant differences between attriters and nonattriters on key…”

“Legal debts are often substantial in amount, can exacerbate preexisting inequalities, and adversely affect the prison reentry process (Bannon et al., 2010; Harris et al., 2010; Link & Roman, 2017; Pleggenkuhle, 2018).”

“…defined by barriers, collateral consequences, and failure, researchers have argued that debt obligations serve as yet another hurdle for former prisoners (Bannon et al., 2010; Harris, 2016; Link & Roman, 2017; Martin et al., 2018), and disproportionately affect people of color (Harris, 2016).”

“Owing child support has consistently been shown to be associated with poor physical and mental health among people with histories of incarceration [25, 26, 38], and it is unclear why the opposite effect was observed here.”

“…face when they reenter society has also created new debtor’s prisons; although the issue of child support arrears and prisoner reentry has received little attention, there is increased acknowledgement that this debt likely to undermine reentry efforts (Link and Roman 2017; Middlemass 2017).”

“…these debts have resulted in requiring returning citizens to allot large portions of their incomes to government agencies and/or mothers of their dependent children, which may reduce incentives to engage with the formal labor market (Link & Roman, 2017; McLean & Thompson, 2007; Roman & Link, 2017).”

“A longer period of incarceration may also have a greater impact on financial wellbeing, including the ability to pay rent, mortgage and debts (Link & Roman, 2017).”

“In countries worldwide, debt problems are common among people with convictions (Aaltonen et al., 2016; Evans, 2014; Gålnander, 2023; Harris et al., 2010; Koenraadt et al., 2020; Link, 2019; Link and Roman, 2017; Pleggenkuhle, 2018; Roman and Link, 2015).”

“Importantly, debts have a negative effect on financial wellbeing, employment, reentry, family structure, and mental health (32, 33).”