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Comment by HillRat | Hacker News Reader

Following the rulings in Tate and Bearden, the state cannot imprison a defendant who has been convicted of a crime that has a sentence of a fine and is legitimately unable to pay. To do otherwise would allow the conversion of a sentence from fine to imprisonment based entirely on the financial status of the offender. However, if the court determines an offender can pay and is refusing to, then all bets are off.

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>the state cannot imprison a defendant who has been convicted of a crime that has a sentence of a fine and is legitimately unable to pay.

That's assuming the court is obligated to evaluate the person's ability to pay. A person could be in the system for months or years before the court conducts an evaluation.

The issue with child support is that the state child support agencies often rely on bureau of labor figures to determine what someone with a particular job "should" be making, and don't consider variance in wages or cost of living when levying child support rates. So while the payments might be reasonable according to some bureaucrats rule book, they aren't reasonable in the real world (a common issue is men with large child support obligations wanting to start another family).

There have been numerous cases of actors whose child support obligations were set at the peak of their career and yet the CSA still expects them to be making the same money.

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