DeSenti says she cannot process losing the home she worked for
Tracy DeSentiHamden resident
DeSenti, who had to sell the home she and her late husband had renovated together to help satisfy the debt the state assessed for his earlier incarceration, said she still cannot process losing what she worked for.
“I still can't wrap my head around losing the thing that I worked for”
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
The state pursued a lien against Billy DeSenti's estate for $232,733 in incarceration debt after his death in 2023, and Tracy DeSenti had to sell the North Branford home they had renovated together to help satisfy roughly $21,000 of that debt.
After the quotation
She now rents a home in Hamden with her three sons and is studying to become a probation officer.
How this statement is classified
The label describes this statement's response within the context above.
Why this label?
DeSenti directly objects to losing her home to satisfy the state's incarceration debt, describing the loss as something she still cannot accept.
- Recorded on
- Published here
- People and groups discussed
- Connecticut Department of Correction, Connecticut Department of Administrative Services
More from this case
Read the full caseRojas says prison debt is inconsistent with lawmakers' criminal justice approach
“a policy that adds to that just seems really inconsistent”Read statement
Lamont supports prison-debt changes, with possible charges for wealthy former inmates
“Maybe if it's Gordon Gekko or some Wall Street titan, yeah, I think they should contribute to the cost of their incarceration. But I think for the other 90% of people, I want to make sure when they've served their time, they get back out, they're not stuck with an incredible burden that is impossible for them to pay off”Read statement
Taubes says the debt hurts reintegration
“It hurts people's ability to reintegrate into society when they carry these debts”Read statement
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The Dispute Index. "DeSenti says she cannot process losing the home she worked for". First published: 2026-09-29. Last updated: 2026-09-29. https://disputeindex.com/events/3269-desenti-who-had-to-sell-the-home-she