Every month, on order of a Colorado judge, Jason Stribling sinks deeper into debt.
Mr. Stribling is obligated to pay $899 a month in current and back child support for his 15-month-old son, Nasir. The only job he says he can find is a part-time one at a Denver recreation center that pays $600 a month. When he does the math, Mr. Stribling said, he feels as if he is drowning.
''I am, like, stunned,'' the 24- year-old father said. ''Sometimes I get so mad at the mother of my son.''
His personal sinkhole of child-support arrears, which Mr. Stribling dug for himself by failing to support his son for nearly a year and by losing his job because of a citation for driving under the influence of alcohol, is more than $9,000 deep and accruing interest at 12 percent a year. While the specifics of his case are unique, his situation is not. Across the country, child support owed by poor fathers like Mr. Stribling has swollen to about $21 billion and is rising at a faster rate than for any other group of men.
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