A Massachusetts judge has sentenced singer Bobby Brown to 30 days in jail unless he pays $US20,000 in child support for two of his children.

Brown, who is in the process of a divorce with singer-actress Whitney Houston, appeared yesterday in handcuffs at Norfolk Probate and Family Court, a day after he was arrested while attending his daughter's cheerleading competition.

Last October, an arrest warrant was issued for the 38-year-old Grammy winner after he failed to show up at a hearing on overdue child support payments to Kim Ward, the mother of two of his children.

In 2004 and 2005, Brown was also sentenced to jail in Massachusetts for failing to pay child support.

In both cases he paid up.

He made headlines last March when police arrested him for an outstanding motor vehicle violation dating to 1992.

"Mr Brown has had a pattern of non-compliance," Ms Ward's lawyer, Linda Medonis, told the court in Canton, south of Boston.

She said Brown had failed to make child support payments from November to February.

Brown's lawyer said the money would be wired from California.

Last September, after a series of domestic disputes and drug-related problems, Houston filed for a divorce from Brown after 14 years of marriage.

Brown, a Boston native, reached fame with the group New Edition and for his 1988 solo album Don't be Cruel.

He attempted a comeback as the star of his own television show, Being Bobby Brown, but the show was canceled in January after Houston stopped appearing.

- Reuters