An inmate complained that the Department of Corrections was failing to timely remit child support payments collected from the complainant’s inmate wages to the Child Support Services Division. This resulted in interest charges added to his child support account. The Ombudsman contacted the DOC Director of Administrative Services and staff in the CSSD Problem Resolution Office. The Ombudsman learned that DOC had been failing to timely remit child support payments it collected from inmates’ wages to CSSD since December 2015 with a typical lag time of 5-7 weeks. This resulted in the accrual of interest charges to the inmates’ child support accounts because CSSD was not receiving payments by the end of the month in which they were due. DOC acknowledged this error and blamed it on employee absences, staffing shortages, and difficulties with the newly implemented statewide accounting system. The DOC director subsequently met with CSSD management and coordinated changes to DOC’s child support payment process to ensure that payments collected from inmates are transferred to CSSD no later than 25th of the month in which they are collected. DOC also hired an Accountant V in its Finance Office and is currently working to fill its other vacancies. DOC also agreed to compensate all of the affected inmates for any interest charges they incurred due to DOC’s late submission of their child support payments to CSSD. To accomplish this, DOC conducted a comprehensive audit of the inmates’ offender trust accounts. After the audit was completed, DOC issued a $9,442 check to CSSD to cover the interest charges incurred for all affected inmates and to be applied to their individual child support accounts. In addition, DOC reports that it has made timely payments to CSSD for the past two months. As for the complainant, DOC reimbursed him $12 for associated interest charges and provided him with a letter of explanation and a worksheet detailing the reconciliation of his offender trust account with his child support account. (A2016-1371)