Public disputes concerning sentencing, incarceration, prison conditions, probation and parole, reentry, and the policies and institutions that govern how the criminal justice system treats people who are charged, convicted or formerly incarcerated.
Published coverage on this page: 4 cases · 8 statements. Statements are ordered newest first.
Texas DPS arrested Austin council candidate Misael Ramos on a riot charge over the September 20 protest after an ICE shooting. DPS says video shows him moving barricades and sandbags. His attorney disputes that the protest was a riot.
Published
Read the case
Published
Published
Published
Labels describe a response to the linked claim or the action explained in the statement summary. Choose one or more.
8 matching statements
Role at the time: Hamden resident
Statement summary
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”
What this label refers to
DeSenti directly objects to losing her home to satisfy the state's incarceration debt, describing the loss as something she still cannot accept.
Role at the time: Civil-rights and criminal-defense attorney
Statement summary
Taubes, a New Haven civil-rights attorney, said carrying incarceration debt makes it harder for formerly incarcerated people to reintegrate into society.
“It hurts people's ability to reintegrate into society when they carry these debts”
What this label refers to
Taubes criticizes the practical effect of the debt on people rebuilding their lives after release.
Role at the time: Deputy Commissioner, Connecticut Department of Administrative Services
Statement summary
Michael, a deputy commissioner at the Department of Administrative Services, said her agency implements the law set by the legislature and declined to weigh in on whether the underlying policy is right.
“We're not involved in the policy discussion here”
What this label refers to
Michael explicitly frames her agency's role as implementation rather than policy judgment, declining to state whether the practice is justified.
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”
What this label refers to
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.
Role at the time: Legal director, ACLU of Connecticut
Statement summary
Barrett, the ACLU of Connecticut's legal director, said the daily cost Connecticut assigns to prisoners builds quickly enough to reach very high total debts in a short period.
“It builds so quickly that you can reach astronomical numbers within a comparatively short amount of time”
What this label refers to
Barrett directly criticizes the size and pace of the debt as unreasonably high, rejecting the fairness of its effect on people who owe it.
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.
Quotation excerpt
“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…”
“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.
Role at the time: Connecticut state senator (R-Enfield); co-sponsor of the 1995 law
Statement summary
Kissel, a co-sponsor of the 1995 law who remains the top Senate Republican on the Judiciary Committee, said taxpayers covered the cost of a person's incarceration and that requiring repayment on a reasonable schedule is a reasonable policy.
“The taxpayers footed the bill. They didn’t do anything wrong. And knowing that one has to pay the state back a reasonable sum on a regular basis is not a bad policy”
What this label refers to
Kissel argues the underlying practice of requiring repayment is justified because taxpayers funded the incarceration and did nothing wrong.
Role at the time: Formerly incarcerated Stamford resident; lead plaintiff, Beatty v. Lamont
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.
“I just don’t think it’s right, because I feel I already paid my debt to society. I just don’t think it’s fair for me to be paying twice”
Beatty directly rejects the practice as unfair to her personally, framing it as a second punishment for the same offense.
Alexander T. Taubes is a civil-rights and criminal-defense attorney in solo practice in New Haven, Connecticut, and a graduate of Yale Law School. His practice includes police-brutality, wrongful-death and post-conviction cases, and he has taught as a visiting clinical lecturer at Yale Law School.
1 case and 1 statement
Lisa Foster is a retired California Superior Court judge who co-founded the Fines and Fees Justice Center in 2018 after directing the U.S. Department of Justice's Office for Access to Justice. She advises courts and policymakers nationally on reforming fines, fees and other monetary sanctions in the justice system.
1 case and 1 statement
Tracy DeSenti is a Hamden, Connecticut resident and addiction counselor. She and her late husband, Billy DeSenti, were both previously incarcerated in Connecticut. After her husband's death in 2023, the state pursued a lien against his estate under Connecticut's cost-of-incarceration law.
1 case and 1 statement
Eleanor Michael is a deputy commissioner at the Connecticut Department of Administrative Services.
1 case and 1 statement
Dan Barrett is the legal director of the ACLU of Connecticut. He previously directed litigation at the ACLU of Vermont and clerked for U.S. District Judge Janet Bond Arterton in Connecticut. His litigation and advocacy work has focused on police accountability, privacy, racial profiling and First Amendment rights.
1 case and 1 statement
Misael Ramos is an Austin community organizer and neighborhood association president. He ran for the Austin City Council's District 1 seat in 2022 and is a candidate for it in 2026.
1 case
Wilber Rafael Garces Perez is a Venezuelan national who entered the United States in 2024 through the CBP One process and worked as a DoorDash delivery driver in Austin, Texas.
1 case
Chief of the Conviction Integrity Unit, Philadelphia District Attorney's Office.
1 case
District Attorney of Philadelphia, elected in 2017.
1 case
Mike Collins is a Republican U.S. representative from Georgia's 10th Congressional District and the Republican nominee for the 2026 United States Senate election in Georgia.
1 case
United States senator from Georgia.
1 case
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.
1 case and 1 statement
