Lisa Foster
Role at the time: Co-founder, Fines and Fees Justice Center; former California Superior Court judge
Statement summary
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”
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)Why we used 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.