About 1.7 million children in the United States have parents who are currently incarcerated and more than 10 million U.S. children are separated from one of their parents during a portion of their childhood because of the parent's incarceration. According to the Bureau of Justice Statistics, of the 1.5 million inmates held in the nation's prisons (federal and state) in mid-2007, approximately 809,800 of them (53%) were parents of minor children. Of the estimated 700,000 persons who are released from prison each year, about 400,000 of them are fathers and mothers. For the last 30 years, states have locked up more persons (many for longer periods of time) and have built more prisons to hold them. Now many states faced with reduced resources and huge prison costs are reevaluating their prison policies and practices. The current economic crisis together with overcrowded prisons and state budget shortfalls may lead to thousands of parents convicted of nonviolent offenses (e.g., persons with drug offenses, burglary, check fraud, or theft convictions) getting out of prison months (in some cases, a year or more) earlier than they were sentenced. How former inmates reconnect to their families impacts not only the children involved but society at large and is of great interest to Congress and the nation. More now than in the past, corrections institutions are acknowledging that most of their population will eventually be released, and probably sooner than the maximum time allowed by their sentence. Thus, they are moving toward a position that will allow them to effectively help inmates successfully transition back into local communities. Successful re-entry means lower recidivism and thereby reduced costs for penal institutions. It also means safer communities. A broad array of research indicates that the two most important factors in successful re-entry are employment and a healthy connection to one's family. The Child Support Enforcement (CSE) program is a federal-state program whose mission is to enhance the well-being of children by helping custodial parents and children obtain financial support from the noncustodial parents, including those in prison or who were formerly in prison. Child support payments enable parents who do not live with their children to fulfill their financial responsibility to their children by contributing to the payment of childrearing costs. There is a growing consensus that the CSE program is one of the financial keys to helping families remain self-sufficient. According to the most recently available data, on average, child support constitutes about 17% of family income for households who receive it. Among poor households who receive it, child support constitutes about 30% of family income. Parents who make regular child support payments are more likely than those who do not to have better family relationships. Research indicates that positive family relationships increase family stability and can help reduce recidivism. The intersection of the mission of state and federal correction facilities (i.e., successful re-entry of former prisoners into local communities) and the mission of the CSE program (i.e., consistent payment of child support obligations) provides both systems with an opportunity to marshal their efforts in a way that results in positive outcomes for children. Both Congress and the Obama Administration are examining federal programs in an effort to reduce waste in the federal budget. Although programs are often evaluated in isolation, the likelihood of reduced federal and state funding may promote more innovative thinking and collaboration among agencies involved in administering the criminal justice system and CSE program. This report examines the CSE program within the context of large numbers of former inmates re-entering communities. It provides a brief review of the CSE program and data related to parents who are in state or federal prisons. Next, it analyzes several issues that relate to the payment of child support by incarcerated or formerly incarcerated parents. Then it presents policy options that address the problem of nonpayment of child support. For example, it discusses ways in which the CSE program can help ex-offenders who are parents reconnect with their children and communities. It also suggests strategies that may lead to both lower recidivism and more parents making child support payments. This report focuses on the CSE program to explore ways to deal with nonpayment of child support by noncustodial parents who are or were in prison. As higher numbers of inmates are released, the CSE program will face more pressure to perform better in the area of increasing child support collections and reducing child support debt. If it is successful, a positive consequence may be fewer parents returning to prison. It is thought that even under current economic conditions, a positive family life will encourage formerly incarcerated noncustodial parents to keep looking for legitimate employment and to steadfastly maintain law-abiding behaviors. This section provides a brief overview of the CSE program. It also presents information and data related to noncustodial parents who are incarcerated or who were formerly incarcerated. The CSE program was enacted in 1975 as a federal-state program (Title IV-D of the Social Security Act) to help strengthen families by securing financial support for children from their noncustodial parent on a consistent and continuing basis and by helping some families to remain self-sufficient and off public assistance. The CSE program provides seven major services on behalf of children: (1) parent location, (2) paternity establishment, (3) establishment of child support orders, (4) review and modification of child support orders, (5) collection of child support payments, (6) distribution of child support payments, and (7) establishment and enforcement of medical support. The CSE program serves both families that receive Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) benefits and those who do not. All 50 states and four jurisdictions (the District of Columbia, Guam, Puerto Rico, and the U.S. Virgin Islands) operate CSE programs. The CSE program is administered by the federal Office of Child Support Enforcement (OCSE) which is in the Administration on Children and Families (ACF) within the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). Most child support collections on behalf of families receiving TANF benefits are used to reimburse state and federal governments for TANF payments made to the family. Child support collected on behalf of nonwelfare families goes to the family, usually through the state disbursement unit. The federal government and the states share program costs at the rate of 66% and 34%, respectively. The federal government also pays states an incentive payment to encourage them to operate effective CSE programs. Federal law requires states to reinvest CSE incentive payments back into the CSE program or related activities. In FY2007, the CSE program collected $24.9 billion in child support payments from noncustodial parents and served nearly 15.8 million child support cases. On average, the program collected $4.73 in child support payments for each $1 spent on the program. In that year, CSE expenditures amounted to nearly $5.6 billion. Although there is a general consensus that the CSE program is performing well, in FY2007, the CSE program only made collections for about 55% of its caseload and collected only 19% of child support obligations for which it had responsibility. Part of the reason for these low performance figures is that the CSE program cannot enforce a child support obligation until one is formally established either through an administrative process (via the state CSE system), a judicial process (via the state court system), or a combination of the two (i.e., via a quasi-judicial system). Moreover, a child support order can only be established if the issue of paternity has been settled. In FY2006, approximately 5 million of the 17 million children in the CSE program (i.e., 29%) had not been issued child support orders on their behalf. Another reason for the poor performance figures is that many of those who owe child support have low incomes. A 2007 Urban Institute survey of three states—Florida, Illinois, and Pennsylvania—indicated that " Across these three states, the average monthly earnings of non-custodial parents were only $23 higher than the average monthly earnings of custodial parents. Employed non-custodial parents in Illinois had the highest monthly earnings at $2,765 per month, and those in Pennsylvania had the lowest, at $1,297 per month. " Although there are no recent data that provide a good estimate of how many low-income parents do not pay child support because they are financially unable to pay, most policymakers agree that the number is significant. According to the Bureau of Justice Statistics, in mid-2007, about 53% of 1.5 million U.S. prisoners held in the nation's prisons were parents of minor children. (See Figure 1 .) These parents (52% of state inmates and 63% of federal inmates) reported having 1.7 million minor children. There are no national data that differentiate inmates from other noncustodial parents in terms of percentage with child support orders, average monthly amount of child support owed, average amount paid, and amount of arrearages (i.e., past-due payments) owed, but it is widely held that inmates and former inmates pay the lowest amount of child support. Moreover, there is some anecdotal information that indicates that child support arrearages of inmates and former inmates are very high. According to one study, about 25% of inmates have open child support cases. Incarcerated noncustodial parents generally owe between $225 to $313 per month in child support; and on average they enter prison owing about $10,000 in child support arrearages and leave prison owing more then $23,000 in arrearage payments.