By Priscilla Ann Ornido
Exonerees are often released from prison with nothing but the clothes they wear, and must rely on family or friends to ensure their basic needs are met. A Connecticut attorney, however, is trying to alter this vicious cycle. Tiffany Stevens, special counsel at McCarter & English law firm in Hartford, co-founded the Connecticut Innocence Fund in 2011 to help ensure a smoother transition for Connecticut exonerees from prison to society.
The Fund is the only one of its kind in the United States, and acts as a bridge loan, which is repaid after the exonerated inmates are awarded damages from the state.
The Connecticut Bar Foundation currently invests in the fund while Community Partners in Action allocates the loans. In order to ensure reimbursement, the money is usually managed by the exoneree’s lawyer, and distributed in small increments to compensate for food, rent, transportation, health care and other basic needs. Additionally, the Fund provides exonerees with volunteer mentors, who assist with finances, job training, and life skills.
Essentially, the Fund serves to enhance each exoneree’s transition back into society. “Our goal has really been to teach these individuals how to manage money before they receive this large grant from the state,” Stevens said. “It’s about teaching them how to manage it, invest it, how to save it, how to go through day-to-day life and preserve what they received for this horrible wrong that they endured.”
Read more here
