GOVERNMENT HAS been advised to do away with prison time for men owing child maintenance and include regulated DNA paternity testing in the law.
UNICEF Children’s Champion Faith Marshall-Harris is so firmly of this view that she is lobbying for authorities to pursue alternative methods to sentencing, as jail was not achieving the desired result.
She acknowledged that 50 per cent of all family applications before the Magistrates’ Courts related to child support arrears, but made it clear that children still did not receive the financial help when their fathers were sent to prison and lost their jobs, and the debt remained.
Speaking during an event titled, A Conversation And Celebration: Children, The Law And Society, at the Frank Collymore Hall on Saturday night, the former magistrate put forward a number of suggestions, including suspending the driving licence for those who were not dependent on it for their livelihood. (WILLCOMM)
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