Like a civic death: CT men face lasting financial hardships after incarceration, report finds

[Excerpt from feature article by Alex Putterman, June 17, 2026]

Between stints in jail or prison, Bridgeport resident Dean Henton has been homeless and hungry. He has dealt with mental health challenges. He has suffered from high blood pressure and respiratory issues. And, he says, he has generally struggled to reintegrate into life on the outside.

“We always have that stigma on us,” said Henton, 59. “It’s sort of like a civic death.”

In all those ways, Henton is typical of a formerly incarcerated man in Connecticut, according to a new report from the New Haven-based nonprofit DataHaven.

The report, based on results from DataHaven’s recent Community Wellbeing Survey, found formerly incarcerated men — particularly those who have been incarcerated multiple times — face significant challenges upon returning to their communities. They include higher rates of financial hardship, food insecurity, unemployment, untreated mental health issues, drug use and health issues.

“None of it was necessarily surprising,” said Carter Shannon, a DataHaven research associate and author of the new report. “But we found that people with incarceration histories struggled more financially and also with their mental and physical health, and that in some cases, like with employment, there was a stronger negative outcome for people who had been incarcerated multiple times.”

DataHaven surveyed nearly 400 formerly incarcerated men, as part of a broader survey that included interviews with about 7,500 randomly selected people across the state. The report was then produced in coordination with Yale’s SEICHE Center for Health and Justice and the University of Connecticut’s Children with Incarcerated Parents Initiative, with Henton as an additional “expert reviewer.”

Its findings included:

– Black and Hispanic men are vastly over-represented among the formerly incarcerated, as compared to white men.

– Those who have been incarcerated multiple times are more than three times as likely to report facing discrimination from law enforcement than those who have never been incarcerated.

– 77% of men who have been incarcerated multiple times and 49% of those who have been incarcerated once report struggling financially, compared to 28% of those who have never been incarcerated.

– 47% of men who have been incarcerated multiple times and 27% of those who have been incarcerated once said they were experiencing food insecurity, compared to 8% of those who have never been incarcerated.

– Formerly incarcerated people are less likely to be employed and less likely to own homes.

– They are far more likely to be at risk of a depressive episode, to have mental health needs they haven’t received treatment for and to have an opioid use disorder.

– 48% of men who have been incarcerated multiple times report being in “fair” or “poor” health, compared to 20% of those incarcerated once and 17% of those never incarcerated.

– Formerly incarcerated men are also more likely to have high blood pressure or hypertension, to have diabetes and to have asthma — and less likely to have health insurance.

Shannon noted it would be wrong to draw a “direct causal connection” between incarceration and some of these effects, given that, for example, people with low incomes are both more likely to be incarcerated and more likely to struggle financially or have health issues.

Still, Shannon said, it’s important “for folks to know that these disparities exist despite a lot of the progress we’ve made” in reducing incarceration and providing reentry services in Connecticut.

The report “reinforces what reentry providers across Connecticut have long known: The challenges associated with incarceration do not end when someone is released,” said Beth Hines, executive director of Community Partners in Action, a Hartford-based organization that helps people transition from incarceration back to their communities, in a statement.

“Reentry is not simply a criminal justice issue,” she said. “It is also a housing, public health, workforce and community issue.”

The findings underscore the need to invest in reentry services that help address people’s needs as they leave incarceration, Hines said.

Research has found mental health needs, substance misuse, employment problems and low income are among the top risk factors associated with recidivism, suggesting efforts to better manage these issues could reduce the number of people who commit new offenses.

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