WSHU Public Radio Reports on Amended Complaint in Prison Debt Class Action
05/02/2023 | wshu.orgWSHU Public Radio reported on the amended complaint filed in the high-profile pro bono case Beatty v. Lamont, a class action lawsuit seeking to eliminate Connecticut’s “prison debt” law, under which the state forces people it incarcerates to pay hundreds of dollars for each day they spend in prison and can collect on that debt for up to 20 years after persons have served their time.
The amended complaint names two new plaintiffs — Natasha Tosado of Hamden and Doug Johnson of Branford – who, like the original plaintiff, Theresa Beatty, are subject to collection efforts by the state against their inheritance. While the state amended the statute in response to the original filing of the suit to eliminate certain types of collections, those amendments did not eliminate the punitive and immoral collection of inheritance, which continues to encourage a cycle of poverty, disparately impacts persons of color, and, the suit alleges, violates the excessive fines clause of the United States Constitution.
Hurwitz Sagarin Slossberg & Knuff LLC and the American Civil Liberties Union of Connecticut are representing the plaintiffs in this case.