AG 2001 09 17 - Laserfiche WebLink

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idea and was willing to explore it further as an alternative to incameration. During the approval process the Program Administrator met with the Director of Social Services, James Cook numerous time to keep him informed of the progress of the project. On September 26, 2000, Ms. Dixon met with the Social Services Board and presented the project to the Board. The Board was excited about the alternative to incarceration and the dollars that it could potentially save Cabarrus County. A meeting of the project team was held and the start date for the project was set for October 17, 2000, as it was the first enforcement court date available. During enforcement court that date, seven (7) delinquent non-custodial parents were sentenced to community service work as an alternative to incarceration. In court in November of 2000, four (4) non-custodial parents were found to be eligible for the alternative sentencing. Enforcement court in December 2000 provided four (4) more non-custodial parents the option of doing community service work or being incarcerated. From October through December 2000, fifteen (15) non-custodial parents were kept out of jail through the project. Cost savinffsfFIieher Service/Cost Avoidance Impacts There were two main benefits of the project. First, was to begin to change thc behavior of the chronically delinquent non-custodial parents, which resulted in a higher collection rate of ordered support. The higher collection of support resulted in more money for the custodial parent to have for the needs of the children. In many of these cases the non-custodial parents have been incarcerated numerous times which seem to have no bearing on their behavior when it comes to paying their court ordered support. However, when they are sentenced to an average of sixty-one (61) hours of community service work for which they are not compensated nor is the value of the time credited to their child suppor~ arrears, it motivates them to seek gainful employment. There have been several of the non-custodial parents who, after completing their community service, have obtained gainful employment and are now paying their support obligations in a timely manner. The second, is the financial benefit or cost ~avings to Cabarrus County. The average child support Agent in Cabarrus County is paid $17.15 per hour. It takes an average of 2 hours to prepare a case for court, costing $34.30 per case. Each court date the average number of cases handled by an Agent is fifteen (15) cases and takes eight (8) hours court time for a cost of $137.20 per agent per day. Considering that the fifteen (15) cases that were referred to Community Service Work would have been heard in one day and the cost of preparing them for court the cost would have been $651.20. Because they did not have to reappear in court the savings for the Child Support Division was $651.20. SheriffBrad Riley has stated that it costs Depa~mem". of ,Social Services 1303 South Cannon Blvd. Konnapolis, NC 28083 (704) 920-1400