Read Their Stories

A father who says he has spent nine years asking Family Court to enforce his parental rights — and who says he has been jailed over a support order he has never been allowed to challenge.

A 27-year-old unemployed father from Queens whose support obligation, his account says, was calculated from W-2s for a job he no longer had — and who was jailed for civil contempt.

A father of four whose account describes a neglect case built, he alleges, after the only court-ordered psychological evaluation found him to be the fit parent.

Held in contempt in 2016 and remanded to Rikers Island in 2026 over alimony and support arrears he says exceed anything he has ever been able to pay.

Sentenced twice to six months for declining to provide a Get, a Jewish religious divorce, raising the question of whether a court may compel a religious act.

A father whose letter to the Supreme Court of Justice describes a month held at Rock Island in 2024 without a criminal charge, an eviction, warrants he says rest on service that never happened, and payment receipts he says the court refuses to admit.