09/27/2026
Great article on something I and other Estate Planning attorneys see so often. https://ctmirror.org/2026/09/27/they-served-their-time-in-prison-then-the-bills-arrived/?utm_source=ActiveCampaign&utm_medium=email&utm_content=Special%20Investigation%3A%20They%20served%20their%20time%20in%20prison%20%20Then%20the%20bills%20arrived&utm_campaign=Sunday%20Reading
I see this in my estate planning and probate practice. It is one of the most regressive things we do.
For many working families, the house is the inheritance. It is the one asset a parent can leave behind that might give the next generation a little security. Yet we allow the State to step in after death and take that asset to satisfy old debts.
We see it most often with Medicaid estate recovery. This article shows the same thing happening with prison debt. In one case, a man became homeless after his mother's house was sold so the State could collect about $31,000.
People should answer for what they do. They should serve their sentences and pay their debts. But their children should not inherit the punishment.
Taking a family's home after someone dies does not create accountability. It takes wealth from families who often have very little of it to begin with. It makes it harder for the next generation to get ahead. It reinforces poverty and generational trauma.
And for what? Connecticut's prison-lien collections from 2020 through 2025 amounted to just 0.016% of General Fund spending.
We should stop balancing government debts on the backs of the next generation. In my opinion, it is regressive policy. And it is wrong.
From the article. "DeSenti’s experience is not unique. She is one of hundreds of Connecticut residents who have had money seized in the last five years through a state law that dates back more than three decades. That law enables the Connecticut Department of Correction to charge a fee for every day a person spends in prison and then collect on that debt in certain situations.
If a formerly incarcerated person wins the lottery, for example, collects an inheritance or receives certain lawsuit settlements, the state can take up to half the money to satisfy the debt.
The same is true in cases where a former prisoner dies and leaves money or other assets to their children, spouses and heirs.
Other states and the federal government have similar laws on the books, commonly referred to as “pay to stay” statutes, but Connecticut’s is one of the harshest, a Connecticut Mirror investigation has found. That’s because the daily cost that Connecticut bills to prisoners is one of the highest in the country."
CT can and should do better by its most vulnerable populations.
Hundreds of CT residents have had money seized through a law that allows the state to charge a fee for every day a person spends in prison.
