Natasha Tosado is a resident of Hamden, Connecticut, a licensed pharmacy technician and an addiction recovery coach. Her fifteen-year-old son, Jayson Negron, was fatally shot by a Bridgeport police officer in 2017. Tosado was incarcerated from 2016 to 2018 and later joined a federal lawsuit challenging Connecticut's cost-of-incarceration law.
Case
Connecticut charges incarcerated people up to $347 a day and can collect the debt for 20 years after release, including from settlements and inheritances. A 2026 investigation found the state collected about $21 million this way since 2020.
Role at the time: Plaintiff, Beatty v. Lamont; mother of Jayson Negron
Response to this claim
Connecticut's prison-debt law, under which the state can seize up to half of a settlement, inheritance or other financial windfall for up to 20 years after release, violates the Eighth Amendment's ban on excessive fines.
“No family should have to bury a child, and the state is making that pain worse. I will never stop grieving Jayson. The settlement in his death was the best acknowledgment we could get that they took his life, and that it was wrong. The state trying to take that money forces me and my family to relive the trauma of Jayson’s death, and it has left me angry and hurt. By joining this lawsuit, I am fighting for myself and for other families, because none of us should have to go through this”
Tosado directly objects to the state pursuing part of a wrongful-death settlement tied to her son's death, describing the practice as adding to her family's harm.
Statement dates: April 20, 2023
