diff --git a/src/PostgREST/AppState.hs b/src/PostgREST/AppState.hs
index 682567f14..72ad8ad3c 100644
--- a/src/PostgREST/AppState.hs
+++ b/src/PostgREST/AppState.hs
@@ -2,6 +2,7 @@
 
 module PostgREST.AppState
   ( AppState
+  , destroy
   , getConfig
   , getDbStructure
   , getIsListenerOn
@@ -89,6 +90,9 @@ initWithPool newPool conf =
     <*> myThreadId
     <*> newIORef 0
 
+destroy :: AppState -> IO ()
+destroy = releasePool
+
 initPool :: AppConfig -> IO SQL.Pool
 initPool AppConfig{..} =
   SQL.acquire (configDbPoolSize, configDbPoolTimeout, toUtf8 configDbUri)
diff --git a/src/PostgREST/CLI.hs b/src/PostgREST/CLI.hs
index cd21c349e..b9c912de0 100644
--- a/src/PostgREST/CLI.hs
+++ b/src/PostgREST/CLI.hs
@@ -34,13 +34,19 @@ main :: App.SignalHandlerInstaller -> Maybe App.SocketRunner -> CLI -> IO ()
 main installSignalHandlers runAppWithSocket CLI{cliCommand, cliPath} = do
   conf@AppConfig{..} <-
     either panic identity <$> Config.readAppConfig mempty cliPath Nothing
-  appState <- AppState.init conf
-  case cliCommand of
-    CmdDumpConfig -> do
-      when configDbConfig $ reReadConfig True appState
-      putStr . Config.toText =<< AppState.getConfig appState
-    CmdDumpSchema -> putStrLn =<< dumpSchema appState
-    CmdRun -> App.run installSignalHandlers runAppWithSocket appState
+
+  -- Per https://github.com/PostgREST/postgrest/issues/268, we want to
+  -- explicitly close the connections to PostgreSQL on shutdown.
+  -- 'AppState.destroy' takes care of that.
+  bracket
+    (AppState.init conf)
+    AppState.destroy
+    (\appState -> case cliCommand of
+      CmdDumpConfig -> do
+        when configDbConfig $ reReadConfig True appState
+        putStr . Config.toText =<< AppState.getConfig appState
+      CmdDumpSchema -> putStrLn =<< dumpSchema appState
+      CmdRun -> App.run installSignalHandlers runAppWithSocket appState)
 
 -- | Dump DbStructure schema to JSON
 dumpSchema :: AppState -> IO LBS.ByteString
@@ -54,7 +60,6 @@ dumpSchema appState = do
           (toList configDbSchemas)
           configDbExtraSearchPath
           configDbPreparedStatements
-  AppState.releasePool appState
   case result of
     Left e -> do
       hPutStrLn stderr $ "An error ocurred when loading the schema cache:\n" <> show e
diff --git a/src/PostgREST/Unix.hs b/src/PostgREST/Unix.hs
index acc1256ff..c6926121c 100644
--- a/src/PostgREST/Unix.hs
+++ b/src/PostgREST/Unix.hs
@@ -43,11 +43,7 @@ runAppWithSocket settings app socketFileMode socketFilePath =
 -- | Set signal handlers, only for systems with signals
 installSignalHandlers :: AppState.AppState -> IO ()
 installSignalHandlers appState = do
-  -- Releases the connection pool whenever the program is terminated,
-  -- see https://github.com/PostgREST/postgrest/issues/268
-  let interrupt = do
-        AppState.releasePool appState
-        throwTo (AppState.getMainThreadId appState) UserInterrupt
+  let interrupt = throwTo (AppState.getMainThreadId appState) UserInterrupt
   install Signals.sigINT interrupt
   install Signals.sigTERM interrupt