50-year-old Walter Scott was turning his life around when Officer Michael Slager killed him in South Carolina on April 4, 2015. Struggling to get enough money to provide for his children, he was in a parenting program hoping to settle his child support debts.
Afterward, the police department covered health insurance for the police officer’s pregnant wife out of taxpayers’ paychecks because that was “the humane thing to do.”
But what about Scott’s children who were left without a father at all?
In South Carolina, over 10% of people in county jails are there for child support back payments, which accrues interest. But really, the state uses children as an excuse to incarcerate and brutalize their parents - which is expensive.
Actually, all child support money doesn’t even go to children. Over the decades, some families haven’t received payments at all. In 2021, the government kept about $1.38 billion of support money for itself.
In Scott’s case, he said the court actually sent his payments to the wrong person, jumpstarting a destructive spiral of incarceration.
Children need and deserve their parents’ support. But this system was not birthed out of care for Black children. It profits off of criminalizing parents and separating them from their kids. If parents can’t contribute to their children’s survival, then there needs to be a better way.