New Haven Independent

Dyson’s proposal came before a less-noticed hearing of the Appropriations Committee.

The bill calls for counting Connecticut prisoners as residents of the towns they come from, not the towns that house the prisons where they’re incarcerated. He said doing that would send significant state funding to the cities most in need of it.

He’s talking about all state aid that uses population as a component, including money from Indian casinos, school transportation, and five or six more. It could add up to at least several hundred thousand dollars a year for New Haven.

Since a lot of federal funding is also determined on a per capita basis, if his bill becomes law that could be another significant revenue stream coming to the cities of New Haven, Hartford, Bridgeport and Waterbury, which provide the bulk of prisoners in the state.

But if a person is sentenced to say, ten years, and living in prison in a small town, like Enfield or Niantic, he is not, in fact, living in the town he came from. So why should he still be counted as a New Haven or Bridgeport resident?

“That’s a valid question,” Dyson said when asked the question at the Capitol Wednesday. “But the point is: Why would they be counted in a town where they are confined, when the town provides absolutely nothing for them? Absolutely nothing. So why would they be counted there?”