Court lets deadbeat fathers dodge jail, help children

KANSAS CITY, Mo. -- Steve McMichael lived in his van, drank too much and owed thousands of dollars in child support.

Disgusted with himself, the Raytown, Mo., man surrendered to Jackson County prosecutors in 1998, then started in an experimental court program that changed his life.

Instead of jailing him for back child support, Fathering Court did all it could to help him.

On Friday, McMichael, 44, said he emerged from the program a year later with a better job and his child support payments and drinking under control.

"I learned alcohol was an outlet for me to feel good about feeling sorry for myself," said McMichael, who has three teen-age sons. "I learned that all the money I was spending on alcohol, if I sent half that to the kids, we'd all be better off."

He spoke as county officials revealed encouraging results for the experiment, which began in early 1998. Officials say they think it was the first of its kind and now has 72 active fathers.

About 30 fathers have graduated from the program, which can take from six months to two years. Almost all of the graduates are still paying regular child support, whereas about half the fathers nationwide who owe don't pay any money at all.

Fathers who do not complete the program can face jail time, and authorities offer fathers help to succeed.

'Incredible' results

About 40 community and social service agencies provide volunteer help to the fathers and their children, including such assistance as substance abuse treatment, job training and parenting classes.

Jackson County Court Commissioner Robert Schieber, who presides over the program, thanked and praised those groups recently at a gathering at the auditorium of the Pioneer Campus of Penn Valley Community College in Kansas City.

"The results are incredible," he said, and he spoke of how the fathers who come before him change.

When they first come in, he said, "they're just down -- they think of themselves as the scourge of society."

As they get help, he said, "They start believing in themselves again. They start believing they can do it. They do it."

He said he concentrates first on getting the fathers to pay lower amounts of regular child support they can afford and getting them to visit their children.

Through it all, he said, the community agencies stand ready with a range of free services to help the fathers and children.

Thomas Caffrey of Kansas City, a father of an 11-year-old girl, said he seldom visited her or paid enough support before entering the program.

He entered it afraid, he said, "but the next thing I know I've got the court behind me instead of working against me."

Now he pays child support and visits his daughter.

"I was running away from a responsibility," he said. "From this day forward, I want to be an asset to society and to my daughter."

McMichael, one of the program's early graduates, said knowing he could call a range of people for help gave him strength to face his problems, which included alcoholism.

Gets at the root

Mary Kay Kisthardt, a family law professor at the University of Missouri-Kansas City School of Law, was not involved in the project but said it made more sense than jail time. Fathers in jail cannot pay child support, she said, and there are not enough jail cells to hold them.

Many fathers who do not pay have minimal job skills or other problems and cannot pay, she said. Without any investment in their children, she said, too few fathers help raise their children.

"If they don't have the job skills or employment, nothing will change," she said of the fathers, and she praised the Fathering Court.

"It gets at the underlying problems," said Kisthardt.