Skip Child Support. Go to Jail. Lose Job. Repeat.
21st April 2015
By his own telling, the first time Walter L. Scott went to jail for failure to pay child support, it sent his life into a tailspin.
He lost what he called “the best job I ever had” when he spent two weeks in jail. Some years he paid. More recently, he had not. Two years ago, when his debt reached nearly $8,000 and he missed a court date, a warrant was issued for his arrest. By last month, the amount had more than doubled, to just over $18,000.
That warrant, his family now speculates, loomed large in Mr. Scott’s death. On April 4, he was pulled over for a broken taillight, fled on foot and, after a scuffle with a police officer, was fatally shot in the back.
The warrant, the threat of another stay behind bars and the potential loss of yet another job caused him to run, a brother, Rodney Scott, said.
April 21st, 2015 at 09:51
Isn’t sending someone to jail for nonpayment a bit like the old debtor’s prisons?
Makes far more sense to garnish wages.
Mr. Scott was, unfortunately, doomed. He made some bad decisions that contributed to that end, but life pretty much took a big dump on him.