AN ACT to increase child support collections by permitting greater sentencing flexibility for a person who commits criminal contempt by failing to comply with an order to pay child support.

The General Assembly of North Carolina enacts:

SECTION 1.  G.S. 5A‑12(a) reads as rewritten:
"(a)	A person who commits criminal contempt, whether direct or indirect, is subject to censure, imprisonment up to 30 days, fine not to exceed five hundred dollars ($500.00), or any combination of the three, except that:
(1)	A person who commits a contempt described in G.S. 5A‑11(8) is subject to censure, imprisonment not to exceed 6 months, fine not to exceed five hundred dollars ($500.00), or any combination of the three;
(2)	A person who has not been arrested who fails to comply with a nontestimonial identification order, issued pursuant to Article 14 ofChapter 15A of the General Statutes is subject to censure, imprisonment not to exceed 90 days, fine not to exceed five hundred dollars ($500.00), or any combination of the three; and
(3)	A person who commits criminal contempt by failing to comply with an order to pay child support is subject to censure, imprisonment up to 30 days, fine not to exceed five hundred dollars ($500.00), or any combination of the three. However, a sentence of imprisonment up to 120 days may be imposed for a single act of criminal contempt resulting from the failure to pay child support, provided the sentence is suspended upon conditions reasonably related to the contemnor's payment of child support."SECTION 2.  This act becomes effective December 1, 2009, and applies to offenses committed on or after that date.
In the General Assembly read three times and ratified this the 14th day of July, 2009.

	s/	 Walter H. Dalton
	 President of the Senate

	s/	 Joe Hackney
	 Speaker of the House of Representatives

	s/	 Beverly E. Perdue
	 Governor

Approved 9:45 a.m. this 24th day of July, 2009