About half of the nearly 2 million people currently incarcerated in the United States are parents, and at least 1 out of every 5 incarcerated people owes or pays child support. Child support payments can be a serious challenge for any non-resident parent (parent who does not live with their child) but for incarcerated parents with no way to earn an income, they can quickly become a crippling debt that leaves them less able to care for their children or themselves, isolated from legitimate employment, and more likely to resort to illegal streams of income. I interviewed 6 incarcerated parents who were required to pay child support while they were in prison, and all of them feel that they and their families have been detrimentally impacted by these impossible debts.

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