{"id":543,"date":"2019-10-08T14:08:58","date_gmt":"2019-10-08T19:08:58","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/stories.kera.org\/price-of-prison\/?p=543"},"modified":"2019-10-22T18:41:42","modified_gmt":"2019-10-22T23:41:42","slug":"how-prison-crushes-ex-offenders-with-debt","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stories.kera.org\/price-of-prison\/2019\/10\/08\/how-prison-crushes-ex-offenders-with-debt\/","title":{"rendered":"How Prison Crushes Ex-Offenders With Debt"},"content":{"rendered":"

Prison makes it nearly impossible to hold onto savings and earn money. But it’s a great place to take on debt.<\/p>\n

Creditors don’t push pause while someone’s incarcerated. And because many people don’t have the money for lawyers or bail, those costs turn into debt owed to family and friends after release.<\/p>\n

In Marc Wilson’s case, he had assets and plenty of savings before his seven-year prison sentence for drug trafficking began. By the time he was released in March 2019, he had nothing \u2014 except around $50,000 in delinquent child support.<\/p>\n

Child support debt \u2014 and guilt<\/h4>\n

It’s a sweltering September day outside the George L. Allen, Sr. Courts Building in Dallas. Wilson doesn’t seem to mind, despite wearing a dress shirt and dark suit pants. He just left a meeting with the mother of his 14-year-old son. They had a sit-down with their child support counselor.<\/p>\n

\"Marc<\/p>\n

Marc Wilson stands outside the George L. Allen, Sr. Courts Building in downtown Dallas on Sept. 10, 2019. \/ Photo: Courtney Collins, KERA<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

It was decided that Wilson wouldn’t have to pay the child support that stacked up while he was in prison.<\/p>\n

“They gave me seven years credit, which came out to about $43,000, $44,000,” he says.<\/p>\n

Wilson’s relieved because his finances are stretched incredibly thin these days. When he was convicted, his house was foreclosed on. He spent his $20,000 savings on his criminal defense. He was a nurse before prison, but the state revoked his license.<\/p>\n

Now he installs cable lines at construction sites and earns less than one-third of his $89,000 per year nursing salary.<\/p>\n

He has mixed feelings about the forgiven child support, though.<\/p>\n

The financial burden of that $44,000 debt might have crushed him. But the guilt of not paying it is doing the same.<\/p>\n

“That’s what I should have been paying,” he says. His son’s life “would have been a lot better if I was making the money that I was and being able to make that amount, that payment.”<\/p>\n

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More about Marc Wilson<\/h6>\n

Read, see and hear about how prison will continue to haunt Wilson’s efforts to rebuild lost wealth<\/a>, even though he’s completed his sentence.<\/p>\n

Here’s how Wilson and other ex-offenders’ financial losses from incarceration, compounded by systemic racism, can inhibit younger family members<\/a> from building wealth.<\/p>\n

Explore<\/a> more stories in KERA’s One Crisis Away: The Price of Prison series.\n<\/div>\n

Wilson won’t get out of this with zero debt. He’s been out of prison for six months, and until today’s meeting, his child support payment hadn’t been adjusted to reflect his new income. So he’d been paying what he could \u2014 about $150 a month \u2014 but quickly found himself $6,000 behind. He also owes interest on that, and<\/em> he owes interest on the $44,000 that was forgiven. His arrears now total $16,000.<\/p>\n

Now, he’ll have to chip away at that. That’s in addition to his new monthly payment: 20% of his take-home pay.<\/p>\n

“It’s a little tough, but it’s OK compared to what I was going to have to pay,” he says. “So, I’m OK. And I know that I’m supposed to do my part to help my son, anyway.”<\/p>\n

Wilson is confident that he can keep up with what he owes now. But if the payment had been set higher, or those seven years of debt hadn’t been forgiven, it would be a different story.<\/p>\n

People who don’t pay child support can be arrested. In that case, the child loses, the ex-partner loses, and so does the person headed to jail.<\/p>\n

“Nobody wins [in that scenario], either, because you still can’t pay, and now you’re incarcerated and you lose the job that you had, with the minimal amount of money that you’re making,” Wilson says. “So, nobody wins.”<\/p>\n

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VIDEO: ‘At first it was hard to talk about prison’<\/h4>\n

“At first it was kind of hard for me to talk to anybody about prison because of the embarrassment and shame that I feel. But I own the time that I’ve done. … Just because you make a mistake doesn’t meant you have to live in that mistake.”<\/p>\n

Wilson shares more about his background, his family and his perspective on moving forward:<\/p>\n