BAY MINETTE --- The Baldwin County District Attorney’s Office has joined the judicial community, Sheriff’s Office and Department of Human Resources to combat delinquent child support payments that are in arrears by about $60 million in Baldwin County and more than $1.5 billion statewide.

District Attorney Hallie Dixon has established a designated prosecutor for criminally non-support defendants, Sheriff Huey “Hoss” Mack created jail space through a residential community corrections program, and Circuit Judge Carmen Bosch now has the answer to a perennial question from non payers:

“If you put me in jail, I lose my job, so I can’t pay.”

Dixon said the system will work with defendants who have lost their jobs or are unable to work due to illness or injury, but will take a hard prosecutorial stance for non-compliance.

“Children are hurting and they are our concern,” Dixon said. “We will work with parents, but if they remain in non-compliance, they will go to jail.”

Dixon said non-custodial parents loose contact from children and fail to realize daily needs due to isolation. Those needs range from sustenance to clipping coupons for groceries. She also noted an increase in female court ordered payments.

“‘Deadbeat dads’ is no longer correct,” she said. “It is deadbeat parents.”

Baldwin County authorities face a unique prosecutorial situation. As a border county, defendants can drive a few minutes to enter Florida or Mississippi.

Non-custodial parents tend to float back and forth, making arrests harder due to the need for multi-jurisdictional cooperation. The BP oil spill and scarcity of jobs also is a factor, according th DHR.

DHR also lists insufficient funding to track down non-custodial parents, lack of court time and lack of available deputies to service warrants.

On the positive, authorities have established paternity and child support measures, tax interception, driver’s license suspension or revocation, passport suspension and criminal prosecution for egregious non-custodial parents, according to the district attorney’s office.

Mack said those arrested and placed in the residential program will receive job counseling and will pay a portion of their wages to court-ordered fee schedules.

“Sometimes, grandparents or a wife will contact us,” Mack said. “If there is a warrant, we will go after them. If they are ordered to pay $100 a month, for instance, they should pay something and work with us. We hope, in the program, to treat them like children themselves, guide them and encourage them to uphold responsibility to their children.”

Mack said he is focused on criminal non-compliance and is working on strenghtening civil non-compliance statutes.

“Food, medical and education needs are expensive, and it’s difficult in a single household,” Mack said. “By the time it gets to us, months, if not years, of non-payment have gone by. We want to help relieve the economic stress on families as soon as we can.”