Seizing Family Homes to Collect Prison Fees

July 30, 2025 — Press Release

More than half of states allow seizure of inheritances, family homes to cover costs of incarceration

WASHINGTON – A new issue brief looks at how family members of incarcerated and formerly incarcerated people suffer unexpected financial penalties with almost every state charging “pay-to-stay” fees, and most states authorizing the seizure of inheritances and family homes to collect.

“Seizing inheritances to satisfy pay-to-stay fees threatens the financial and physical wellbeing of formerly incarcerated people, their families, and their communities,” said Nketiah “Ink” Berko, Equal Justice Works fellow, sponsored by the Rossotti Family Foundation, at the National Consumer Law Center and author of the report. “States must repeal all statutes that charge individuals for incarceration and end the seizure of inheritances to cover pay-to-stay fees.” 

Handcuffing Heirs: How Seizing Inheritances to Collect Pay-to-Stay Prison Fees Hinders Recovery and Financial Stability examines how pay-to-stay laws and the seizure of family inheritances to cover pay-to-stay fees further widens the chasm between the haves and have-nots. Seizing family inheritances to pay for incarceration causes particular harm to Black communities who, in large part due to historic disinvestment in Black neighborhoods, have less wealth available to pass to their heirs.

Black families are also more likely to lose any inheritance they may receive to pay-to-stay fees. Due to structural racism in criminal law enforcement, Black people are over-represented and over-punished in the criminal legal system, and their families can bear the brunt of punitive pay-to-stay fees. Seizure of resources to collect pay-to-stay fees can also contribute to recidivism, making it harder for returning citizens to achieve the financial stability necessary to reintegrate into society and avoid reincarceration. 

States can change the laws that sentence formerly incarcerated people and their families to generations of debt. Illinois, New Hampshire, and Missouri have repealed their pay-to-stay statutes in recent years and Connecticut partially reformed its pay-to-stay laws, exempting incarcerated individuals from paying the first $50,000 of their incarceration costs and collecting only from individuals convicted of “serious crimes.” 

Related Resources

• Seizing the Safety Net: Collecting Criminal Justice Debt with Tax Refund Offsets, January 2025
• Keeping it in the Family: Legal Strategies to Address the Challenge of Heirs Property and Prevent Home Loss, January 2024
• Surviving Debt, chap. 23: “Debts Related to Criminal and Government Fines and Fees”