CLAYTON • New St. Louis County Prosecuting Attorney Wesley Bell said Friday that his office was moving toward prosecuting child support cases as civil — not criminal — matters to bring the county more in line with the rest of the state.

It’s a move he says will help offenders have better chances at getting jobs, resulting in better chances at paying for their children’s care.

The new approach isn’t a free pass to skip out on child support payments, Bell said. In civil court, someone who refuses to pay could be held in contempt of court and ordered jailed, he said.

In the most egregious cases, Bell said he might pursue criminal charges, but his office is still working out how those cases would be defined.

“When you have two people applying for a job who are similarly situated, and one has a felony conviction even if it’s just for child support, we’d be lying if we said that didn’t hurt people’s chances of being successful at getting a job,” he said. “And most people I talk to, single moms or single dads, they just want the support for their family.