Gifts to Prisoner Not Income for Child Support Purposes
Saturday / June 09, 2007
Are gifts to a prisoner income for child support
purposes? Not in Pennsylvania.
Child support statutes attempt to define "income" for
child support purposes as broadly as possible. For
example, in Pennsylvania, the definition of income is
134 words long. But the definition wasn't long enough
to include gifts made to a prisoner. On June 8, 2007,
the Commonwealth Court of
Pennsylvania ruled that gifts to a prisoner
are not income so that a prisoner's inmate
account could not be attached to pay the
inmate's $288 per month child support
obligation.
How much was the prisoner receiving? In one month, the prisoner received $14.40 in income but $300 in monetary gifts. In another month, he received income of $21.85 and $411 in gifts. The court did not say what the prisoner received in other months, but apparently these months were typical. The Department of Corrections claimed that the prisoner lived "a self-indulgent prison lifestyle, spending his money on luxuries at the prison commissary and in-cell cable television while his minor children received little of his available funds due them for their basic necessities of life."
According to the court, there were two problems with attaching the prisoner's monetary gifts to pay child support. First, the child support order was limited to money earned. Second, Pennsylvania's definition of income does not include gifts. Only the Department of Corrections defined income to include “all funds credited to an inmate’s account regardless of source.”
The five judges in the majority lectured the Department of Corrections: "The Department has only one interest in court orders and that is to carry them out as written, not the way it believes they should have been written or the way the law should have been written." But the two dissenters called the majority's decision an "end run" around the child support laws.
How much was the prisoner receiving? In one month, the prisoner received $14.40 in income but $300 in monetary gifts. In another month, he received income of $21.85 and $411 in gifts. The court did not say what the prisoner received in other months, but apparently these months were typical. The Department of Corrections claimed that the prisoner lived "a self-indulgent prison lifestyle, spending his money on luxuries at the prison commissary and in-cell cable television while his minor children received little of his available funds due them for their basic necessities of life."
According to the court, there were two problems with attaching the prisoner's monetary gifts to pay child support. First, the child support order was limited to money earned. Second, Pennsylvania's definition of income does not include gifts. Only the Department of Corrections defined income to include “all funds credited to an inmate’s account regardless of source.”
The five judges in the majority lectured the Department of Corrections: "The Department has only one interest in court orders and that is to carry them out as written, not the way it believes they should have been written or the way the law should have been written." But the two dissenters called the majority's decision an "end run" around the child support laws.
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