Foster calls Connecticut's incarceration fee a regressive tax
Lisa FosterCo-founder, Fines and Fees Justice Center; former California Superior Court judge
Foster, a co-founder of the Fines and Fees Justice Center and a former California judge, said laws like Connecticut's function as an extra financial punishment on people who have already served their sentence.
“It's not the way we should be running the criminal justice system. It's a regressive tax”
Reporting
Other statements by Lisa Foster in this case
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Where this statement fits
Should Connecticut collect per diem incarceration fees from former inmates' settlements and windfalls?
Connecticut has charged incarcerated people a daily fee for the cost of their imprisonment since 1995, and state law lets the Department of Administrative Services collect on that debt for up to 20 years after release, including by taking up to half of a lottery win, inheritance or lawsuit settlement, or a lien against a deceased person's estate. A Connecticut Mirror investigation published September 27, 2026 found the daily rate has reached $347, that a year in prison can produce a debt of nearly $127,000, and that the state collected about $21 million this way from 2020 to mid-2026 from hundreds of formerly incarcerated people, including money from wrongful-death and police-brutality settlements. The legislature narrowed the law in 2022 and 2024, and a federal lawsuit led the state to withdraw its claims against its four named plaintiffs by October 2024, but collection from others has continued. The dispute is whether Connecticut should be allowed to collect this debt from former inmates' settlements, inheritances and windfalls at all, not whether any individual's specific bill was calculated correctly.
Source and context
Reporting
About this source
CT Mirror investigation into Connecticut's cost-of-incarceration collection law, published September 27, 2026. Based on a review of hundreds of probate-court cases filed from 2020 to 2026 and interviews with more than a dozen affected people, state officials, legislators and advocates. Anchors this case's account of the practice's scale, mechanics and the on-record positions of DAS, the Attorney General's office and named advocates and affected individuals.
Archived copy (opens in a new tab)Before the quotation
Foster was commenting generally on state laws that charge incarcerated people for the cost of their imprisonment, including Connecticut's.
After the quotation
She said it does not matter that a person has already served their sentence and paid their debt to society.
How this statement is classified
The label describes this statement's response within the context above.
Why this label?
Foster rejects the law as an improper way to run the criminal justice system and frames it as an unfair extra tax on formerly incarcerated people.
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- Published here
- People and groups discussed
- Connecticut Department of Correction, Connecticut Department of Administrative Services
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The Dispute Index. "Foster calls Connecticut's incarceration fee a regressive tax". First published: 2026-09-29. Last updated: 2026-09-29. https://disputeindex.com/events/3264-foster-a-co-founder-of-the-fines-and