UPDATED: The Office of the Court Trustee provided additional details and about the amnesty payment plans.
More than 1,000 parents who could face jail for not paying their child support get a break next month, when Sedgwick County District Court offers amnesty to those who want to catch up.
Amnesty payment plans will be offered to parents who have active bench warrants or are not in compliance with their orders, if they show up, in person, between 7 a.m. and 7 p.m. Oct. 14 at Atwater Neighborhood City Hall, 2755 E. 19th St.
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Court Trustee Joy Kay Williams, whose office oversees some 15,000 domestic cases, said people can call her office at 316-660-5833 to find out how much they owe. As part of the amnesty plan, parents will be asked to make a one-time fee of roughly 1.5 times their regular monthly child support payments. That will go to help pay their back support. Then they will get a personalized payment plan to help them catch up.
Parents with outstanding bench warrants will have them cleared. All parents will receive a copy of their payment plans.
But you must show up Oct. 14 at Atwater.
Wichita Municipal Court officials tell us that the city has received a grant from the U.S. Department of Justice for a mental health court.
City officials say the court has been trying to get a grant for two years. Although they don’t know how much money they’ll be getting, they have received approval for federal funding.
The word on the new court follows a story I wrote for the Eagle about the growing problem of mentally ill people ending up in prison and another story about the training received by police for handling mentally ill people in crisis situations.
According to criminal justice experts, the mental health court is the next step in helping reduce the numbers in prison. Mental health courts follow the model of drug courts as a way of giving alternatives to punishment for people who may have run afoul of the law because of their illnesses or addictions.
Wichita Municipal Court has already developed drug courts for city offenders charged with misdemeanors.
Sedgwick County District Court is beginning a drug court for more serious offenders this fall. Parole officers and mental health providers have told us they hope that a mental health court for felony offenders also will follow.