DAS official declines to take a position on the policy
Eleanor MichaelDeputy Commissioner, Connecticut Department of Administrative Services
Michael, a deputy commissioner at the Department of Administrative Services, said her agency implements the law set by the legislature and declined to weigh in on whether the underlying policy is right.
“We're not involved in the policy discussion here”
Reporting
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
Michael was responding to a question about whether DAS could waive a lien in cases of financial hardship, after Lisa Janssen's attorney argued the law allowed the agency to set aside a lien to support a surviving spouse.
After the quotation
She said DAS has no ability to waive a prison lien based on the statute Janssen's attorney cited.
How this statement is classified
The label describes this statement's response within the context above.
Why this label?
Michael explicitly frames her agency's role as implementation rather than policy judgment, declining to state whether the practice is justified.
- Recorded on
- Published here
- People and groups discussed
- Connecticut Department of Administrative Services
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The Dispute Index. "DAS official declines to take a position on the policy". First published: 2026-09-29. Last updated: 2026-09-29. https://disputeindex.com/events/3267-michael-a-deputy-commissioner-at-the-department-of