Dads went to court facing jail time. Instead, they got a helping hand

Just over a year ago, Michael Mathis sat in a Bibb County courtroom afraid he was going to jail.

The father of a teenage son, Mathis hadn’t paid his court-ordered child support in at least a year.

Although he’d graduated from high school and taken a few college classes, Mathis had trouble finding work. He was depressed and frustrated.

He’d only recently been hired to work in a local farmer’s market booth, paid cash out of a man’s pocket.

That day in December 2015, he had $100 in his pocket.

He had to pay $75 of it.

“I was sweating,” Mathis, 45, said recently. “I was nervous.”

He’d never heard of the Macon Judicial Circuit’s Parental Accountability Court, a program that offers an alternative to incarceration for parents who are behind on their child support payments.

After being introduced to the program’s coordinator that day, Mathis began taking advantage of the court’s job search services.

He landed a job just a few months later.

Since its launch in Bibb, Crawford and Peach counties in 2013, the Parental Accountability Court has helped in the collection of more than $330,000 in child support payments while helping unemployed — and underemployed — fathers find work.

Most of the court’s participants have been in jail for failing to pay child support — or they’re on the doorstep, said Philip Raymond, the Superior Court judge who presides over the program.

Many of them have never paid a payment.

“A lot of them had lost a lot of their hope of ever behind employed,” Raymond said during a graduation ceremony earlier this month. “We have put them, hopefully, on the track of success for the rest of their lives.”

Part of the program’s goal is to separate the “deadbeat dads” from those who are just beaten down and need some help, the judge said in a recent interview.

Most participants are willing to pay if they’re able, he said.

“We’ve taken people who were truly in bad, dire straights and helped them get trained, educated, get a job and are now paying their support and have now involved themselves with their children.”

“It’s not just that we want your money,” Raymond said. “We want you to be a father.”

May will mark a year since Mathis started work at Beasley Flooring, helping to manufacture hardwood floors. While in the court program he paid $3,179 in child support.

He and five other men graduated from the court April 14 after meeting a goal of becoming employed and paying at least six months of their full, court-ordered child support payments.

“I just needed a lift up,” Mathis said. “It means a lot.”

While seeking work, program is participants’ ‘job’

Parental Accountability Courts first started in Georgia in 2008. The Macon Circuit’s court was the 11th one set up.

Now there are courts in 32 of the 49 Georgia judicial circuits, and 10 more are set to launch in fiscal year 2018, said Clarence Burge, a senior outreach manager for the Georgia Division of Child Support Services.

The goal is for the courts to begin in every circuit.

The Macon Circuit’s program began with a class of 13 participants and has grown to serve as many as 39 people at a time.

Of the court’s 161 total participants, 34 have graduated. Of those, 32 have remained successful in avoiding contempt proceedings for nonpayment, program coordinator Steve Giglio said.

Participants can stay in the program up to 18 months, but not all of them reach the goals required for graduation.

Those who didn’t graduate either were removed for noncompliance or their time ran out, Giglio said.

Although participants are required to file into a courtroom for monthly meetings with Raymond, the judge makes a point not to wear his black robe.

“It’s a visual reminder to them that this court isn’t about sending them to jail,” the judge said. “When these gentlemen have seen judges in robes before, usually bad things happened. … That’s not what we’re about.”

The only sanction Raymond hands out is community service hours — either for not attending the program’s twice-a-week meetings or for not making a payment toward their child support goals.

“We tell them, until you get a job, this program is your job,” the judge said.

Participants who are kicked out of the program go back into the regular contempt system, facing potential jail time for nonpayment.

The program has saved an estimated $725,000 in incarceration costs over its four years, a figure arrived at assuming that many participants might otherwise have spent 90 days or so in jail.

Some people in the program have been in jail as many as eight times over a period of years, Raymond said.

Along with the savings, not having people jailed for failing to pay child support has freed up space at the Bibb County jail, which struggled in recent years to stay below its inmate capacity.

The court has worked with community partners such as the Georgia Department of Labor, Goodwill Job Connection, the Salvation Army, Macon Rescue Mission, Macon Transit Authority and others to help participants prepare for and find work, and also to meet their basic needs while they search for a job.

Unlike the circuit’s grant-funded drug and mental health courts, the Parental Accountability Court operates with just a $10,000 budget provided by Bibb County and the state paying Giglio’s salary.

When the program launched, it wasn’t receiving any funding aside from Giglio’s salary.

The money is used to help participants get ID cards, reinstate their driver’s license, get copies of a birth certificate and other documents needed to get a job.

It’s also used for GED preparation classes and bus passes.

“We consider it a good investment in helping them move forward,” Raymond said.

The court is looking for funding to add a part-time employee to help further develop services provided in Crawford and Peach counties.

‘It makes me feel like a man’

When Ronden Davis was released from prison in 2008, he had a high school diploma but no job skills.

He’d started “hustling” on the street when he was 14 or 15.

While locked up, he got behind on child support payments for his two daughters. After his release, the mother of one of his sons also filed court papers for support.

Despite seeking work through a temp service, he had trouble finding and keeping a job.

It would have been easy to return to a life making easy money on the street, the 42-year-old said.

“I knew what I didn’t want to go back to,” he said. “I didn’t want that part of my life anymore … I knew I could do better.”

After a stint working at the Macon Water Authority helping to maintain the buildings and grounds, he got a temporary job at Nichiha, a fiber cement company with a manufacturing plant in south Bibb County.

One day he pulled a crumpled copy of his resume from a pocket and handed it to a manager, asking for consideration if a position became available.

In 2014, Davis got a letter saying he had to go to court.

“I knew I was behind” on payments, he said.

While there, Davis was referred to the Parental Accountability Court, where he got life-changing help and someone to hold him accountable.

After he’d been in the program for about six months, Davis was hired for a part-time job with a cleaning service.

Then, during summer 2014 he was hired back at Nichiha as a machine operator. He kept the cleaning job until his hours at Nichiha increased and he couldn’t do both.

Now, he’s a maintenance coordinator at Nichiha, and he’s caught up with his child support payments.

Able to pay both his bills and his child support, he said, “It makes me feel like a man.”

This story was originally published April 21, 2017 at 3:38 PM with the headline "Dads went to court facing jail time. Instead, they got a helping hand."