A new law that took effect October 2nd in Connecticut is likely to have 'grave consequences' for already overcrowded recently.
The law requires people who plead guilty to any crime involving the use, attempted use, or threatened use of force to be incarcerated until sentencing - even in situations in which the defendant is not likely to go to prison.
Roughly 9,000 criminal cases are pending statewide in which defendants are charged with breach of peace or third-degree assault, two of the most minor criminal charges that would be covered by the new law. 
If just half of those cases involved a delay between a defendant's guilty plea and a sentencing - most often for a pre-sentence investigation that could take as long as eight weeks to compile – that would result in at least 4,500 additional inmates for the state's prison system.
Moreover, Leuba said, the law as written will have a 'chilling effect' on some of the court's programs, such as domestic violence dockets, Drug Court and Community Court.
In those programs, which can last as long as a year, defendants are typically required to plead guilty as a condition of acceptance.  Successful completion often results in a dismissal of charges.
'We may have a clogging of the system,' Leuba said of the law. 'We have been working to eliminate backlogs, and this only exacerbates that situation.'
Leuba spoke at a public hearing at the Legislative Office Building before the General Assembly's Program Review and Investigations Committee, which ordered a report on state prison overcrowding. A preliminary version delivered to the committee last month pointed to lawmakers' general 'get tough' approach on crime over the past two decades as the chief reason for a tripling of the prison population since 1985, to about 17,500 people today.
Gerald A. Smyth, the state's chief public defender, echoed Leuba's comments. 'It is causing problems already,' he said of the new law, 'and it will continue to cause problems. It will make it difficult to dispose of these cases.'
Correction Commissioner John Armstrong said his agency is working with Chief State's Attorney John M. Bailey to monitor the actual effect the law may have on the prison population. It is too soon to speculate on one, he added, although he said the law has positive aspects. 'It is a real protective measure for the victims of crime,' he said.
The Program Review and Investigations Committee's inquiry follows criticism of Correction's transfer last year of nearly 500 inmates to prisons in Virginia.