Kiel Brennan-Marquez and Riley Breakell jointly urged repeal of Connecticut's incarceration lien, arguing that it undermines civil-rights remedies and imposes excessive, poorly disclosed punishment
Kiel Brennan-MarquezUConn law professor, writing jointly with Riley Breakell
Kiel Brennan-Marquez and Riley Breakell jointly urged repeal of Connecticut's incarceration lien, arguing that it undermines civil-rights remedies and imposes excessive, poorly disclosed punishment.
“We write in support of HB 5390”
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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.
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Original text
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Kiel Brennan-Marquez and Riley Breakell jointly urged repeal of Connecticut's incarceration lien, arguing that it undermines civil-rights remedies and imposes excessive, poorly disclosed punishment. Mumina Egal and Anna VanCleave jointly urged repeal, arguing that prison debt obstructs reentry and that taking inheritances and settlements harms families without a sound fiscal rationale.
Archived copy (opens in a new tab)Before the quotation
Connecticut's Judiciary Committee heard testimony on HB 5390, which proposed ending incarceration-cost liability.
After the quotation
Brennan-Marquez and Breakell argued that the lien undermined civil-rights remedies and imposed excessive punishment.
How this statement is classified
The label describes this statement's response within the context above.
Why this label?
Urges repeal of continued fee collection; welcoming partial reform does not endorse the remaining liens.
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The Dispute Index. "Kiel Brennan-Marquez and Riley Breakell jointly urged repeal of Connecticut's incarceration lien, arguing that it undermines civil-rights remedies and imposes excessive, poorly disclosed punishment". First published: 2026-10-01. Last updated: 2026-10-01. https://disputeindex.com/events/4267-kiel-brennan-marquez-and-riley-breakell-jointly-urged