Exhibit 5.1

                                                                 August 11, 2004

Southern Connecticut Bancorp, Inc.
215 Church Street
New Haven, CT 06510

         Re:      Registration Statement on Form S-8

Ladies and Gentlemen:

This opinion is furnished to you in connection with a Registration Statement on
Form S-8 filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission (the "Commission")
under the Securities Act of 1933 (as amended, the "Securities Act") relating to
the sale of up to 430,780 shares (the "Shares") of Common Stock, $0.01 par value
per share, of Southern Connecticut Bancorp, Inc., a Connecticut corporation (the
"Company").

The Shares are to be issued and sold by the Company upon exercise of options
granted pursuant to the Southern Connecticut Bancorp, Inc. 2001 Stock Option
Plan (the "Plan") and the Southern Connecticut Bancorp, Inc. 2002 Stock Option
Plan (the "2002 Plan"), the forms of which have been incorporated by reference
as Exhibits 99.1 and 99.2 to the Registration Statement.

We are acting as counsel for the Company in connection with the issue and sale
by the Company of the Shares. We have examined signed copies of the Registration
Statement as filed with the Commission. We have also examined and relied upon
the Certificate of Incorporation and the By-Laws of the Company, each as
restated and/or amended to date, and the originals or copies certified to our
satisfaction of such records, documents, certificates, memoranda and other
instruments as we have deemed necessary for purposes of rendering the opinions
hereinafter set forth.

In our examination of the foregoing documents, we have assumed the genuineness
of all signatures, the authenticity of all documents submitted to us as
originals, the conformity to original documents of all documents submitted to us
as copies, the authenticity of the originals of such latter documents and the
legal competence of all signatories of such documents.

We express no opinion herein as to the laws of any state or jurisdiction other
than the state laws of the State of Connecticut, including the Connecticut
Business Corporation Act, and the federal laws of the United States of America.

Based upon and subject to the foregoing, we are of the opinion that the Shares
have been duly authorized for issuance and, when the Shares are issued and paid
for in accordance with the terms and conditions of the Plan, the Shares will be
validly issued, fully paid and nonassessable.

It is understood that this opinion is being furnished to you solely for your
benefit in connection with the Registration Statement and may not be used or
relied upon by you for any other purpose.





Please note that we are opining only to matters expressly set forth herein, and
no opinion should be inferred as to any other matters. This opinion is based
upon currently existing statutes, rules, regulations and judicial decisions, and
we disclaim any obligation to advise you of any change in any of these sources
of law or subsequent legal or factual developments which might affect any
matters or opinions set forth herein.

We hereby consent to the filing of this opinion with the Commission as an
exhibit to the Registration Statement in accordance with the requirements of
Item 601(b)(5) of Regulation S-B under the Securities Act and to the use of our
name therein. In giving such consent, we do not hereby admit that we are in the
category of persons whose consent is required under Section 7 of the Securities
Act or the rules and regulations of the Commission promulgated thereunder.




                                                    Very truly yours,

                                                    /s/ Day, Berry & Howard LLP
                                                    ---------------------------
                                                    Day, Berry & Howard LLP

AMT/EL


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