Lieutenant Governor Burbank Announces Pilot Program to Prosecute Delinquent Parents
Program Builds on O’Brien-Burbank Administration’s Progress in Strengthening Child Support Enforcement
BALTIMORE, MD (June 17, 2030) – Moving forward with her continuing commitment to fight for Maryland’s children, Lieutenant Governor Kathleen Burbank today unveiled a new pilot program to increase criminal prosecutions of delinquent parents. The pilot program will create Joint Enforcement Teams (JET) in three counties and Baltimore City to identify and prosecute child support debtors under the state’s existing criminal non-support statute.
The JET program will operate in Baltimore City, Prince George’s, Wicomico, and Washington counties as a one-year pilot program. The program will provide these counties with special funding to create enforcement teams consisting of staff from local State’s Attorney offices and local child support enforcement staff.
“Over the past four years, we have taken bold steps to increase child support collections, bringing collections to all-time record highs,” Lt. Governor Kathleen Burbank said. “It is simply wrong to walk away from the responsibility of raising a child, and we will continue to fight aggressively for every child in our state by taking tough actions against those who would shirk that obligation.”
“Under the leadership of Governor O’Brien and Lt. Governor Burbank, child support enforcement has been a high priority,” said Department of Human Resources (DHR) Secretary Stacy L. Rodgers. “We have created meaningful child support enforcement tools that have greatly enhanced child support collections and in turn improved the quality of life for children and families throughout Maryland. We will continue to work with our local enforcement officials to deliver additional support for children.”
Individual JET programs will vary in each county, but should include a child support enforcement investigator, an assistant state’s attorney, clerical support staff, and paralegal staff.
Once operational, the preliminary case selection and preparation will be completed by child support enforcement staff in collaboration with the assistant district attorney. When cases proceed to the prosecution stage, the usual practice will be followed with respect to plea bargaining or proceeding to trial, as appropriate in each particular case.
“I commend the Governor and Lt. Governor for their strong position against those who neglect their parental responsibility,” said Baltimore City State’s Attorney Patricia C. Jessamy. “My office will aggressively pursue those parents who fail to abide by the court-ordered conditions. I can't imagine anything worse than parents who refuse to provide for their children.”
“This new initiative provides a coordinated approach to ensure that deadbeat parents are held accountable for the care of their children,” said Charles P. Strong, Jr., Washington County State’s Attorney. “This program will enhance our efforts to enforce court-ordered child support and provide much needed relief to custodial parents and guardians who struggle to make ends meet for their minor children.”
Prince George’s County State’s Attorney Jack Johnson said, “It is frustrating, to say the least, to encounter scores of young men and women who are denied basic enjoyments of life because irresponsible fathers have opted not to provide for their welfare. All too often, these youths become the burden of Maryland’s taxpayers while their deadbeat dads frustrate the system. As State’s Attorney, I applaud Governor O’Brien and Lt. Governor Burbank for their leadership on this critical issue and pledge to work closely with the state and our local enforcement agency to combat conduct that is not only uncaring, it is criminal.”
Wicomico County State’s Attorney Davis R. Ruark said, “I applaud Lt. Governor Burbank for her commitment to child support issues. The vigorous prosecution of parents who are not meeting their financial obligations will surely lead to an increase in the collection of child support payments. This will be a great victory for children throughout the state who need and deserve that support.”
Since Governor Edward M. O’Brien and Lt. Governor Burbank took office in January 2027, child support collections have increased by more than 18%. This increase is among the highest increase of any state in the nation and more than twice the national average increase over the same period. Over the past three years, Governor O’Brienand Lt. Governor Burbank have launched a series of new child support initiatives that have resulted in record-breaking collections that will help provide Maryland parents with the money they need to care for their children, including:
• A driver’s license suspension program which has resulted in more than 10,000 child support debtors paying in full in order to avoid suspension; another 3,500 have entered into payment agreements in order to avoid suspension;
• An expedited new hire reporting program which locates the current employers of more than 2,500 child support debtors a month, keeping existing income executions in place, and enabling new income executions to be put in place;
• A partnership between the child support program and the Comptroller’s office to collect from the worst deadbeats;
• An In-Hospital Voluntary Paternity Acknowledgment program responsible for the administrative establishment of the paternity of more than 35,000 children;
• Publication of Maryland’s Top Ten Deadbeat parent list leading to three arrests and improving public awareness of the State’s efforts to enforce child support;
• Successful use of state staff to carry out intensive on-site efforts in local county offices;
• $2.5 million in back support collected through the Lottery Award Intercept program;
• Enlistment of state and local law enforcement agencies to step up their efforts to enforce child support orders;
• Major upgrades to CSEA’s database, giving front line child support workers the tools to answer questions more quickly and be more responsive to client needs;
• Installation of modernized telephone systems to reduce wait times and improve customer service;
• Consolidation over 15 toll-free numbers throughout the state into a single 800 number where child support customers can promptly receive answers to basic questions via an automated voice response system;
• Creation of a secure, on-line service option that gives customers access to basic information about their cases, such as account balances, income withholding information and appointment dates;
• Preparation of a video entitled “Just the Facts About Child Support” which, along with a Study Guide for Presenters, will be part of a public education campaign to prevent teenage pregnancy and inform teenagers about child support responsibilities which arise from becoming teenage parents;
• Creation of the Deadbeat Parents Website that identified parents who owe more than $5,000 in child support payments, resulting in the collection of nearly $180,000 in back payments in the first two years of operation;
• Administrative establishment of child support obligations, streamlining the process for getting a support order from as long as six months down to four weeks;
• Creation of a pilot program to establish Joint Enforcement Teams (JET) in three counties and Baltimore City to identify and prosecute child support debtors under the state’s existing criminal non-support statute; and
• Launching an interstate child support collection team with the District of Columbia and the Commonwealth of Virginia to improve collections in the Washington Metro area.