Barrett criticizes prison-debt claim against Torres as unconstitutional
Dan BarrettDan Barrett, ACLU of Connecticut legal director, in comments reported April 29; the quotation date is not established
Barrett criticizes the state claim against a potential settlement benefiting Victor Torres. He argues that incarceration debt can let the state offset damages arising from its own conduct.
“It's ghoulish, it's unconstitutional”
Reporting
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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 reports the state claim against a potential settlement and interviews Dan Barrett about incarceration-debt collection.
Archived copy (opens in a new tab)Before the quotation
CT Mirror reports that the state seeks incarceration-cost reimbursement from a possible settlement benefiting Torres.
After the quotation
The report describes the potential damages claim and responses from state agencies.
How this statement is classified
The label describes this statement's response within the context above.
Why this label?
The reference point is Connecticut collecting incarceration costs from former inmates. Barrett expressly criticizes a claim against a potential settlement as unconstitutional.
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The Dispute Index. "Barrett criticizes prison-debt claim against Torres as unconstitutional". First published: 2026-10-29. Last updated: 2026-10-29. https://disputeindex.com/events/7169-barrett-criticizes-the-state-claim-against-a-potential