It makes absolutely no sense to incarcerate fathers or mothers who are negligent in paying child maintenance.
This is the belief of President of the Single Fathers Association Rhondall Feels.
Mr Feels was a guest on Power 102 Digital’s Power Breakfast Show this morning.
He reasoned if the aim is to get the errant parent to pay child maintenance nothing could be gained by having the individual locked behind prison bars since this would neither help the situation nor benefit the child.
On top of that he explained while behind bars this person now becomes dependent on the State.
He disclosed that the State pays somewhere around $25, 000 – $30, 000 per prisoner per month.
Feels noted that the ankle bracelet system has been introduced into T&T’s legal system and he believes that this could be quite instrumental in getting persons to pay their child maintenance fees.
He explained using ankle bracelets to track the errant parents to ensure they didn’t spend money they should be spending on the child would be much more effective.