New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D) announced that the state will resume funding college courses for state prison inmates. While state inmates were eligible for high-school level courses prior to Cuomo’s announcement, eligibility for federal and state college tuition assistance was stripped under Gov. George Pataki’s (R) administration in 1995.
Cuomo is, in part, basing his justification for the tuition assistance renewal on the Bard Prison Initiative, a privately-funded program that offered college-level courses at six state prisons. The initiative only educated a small population and had a recidivism rate of just 4 percent — far below the statewide rate of 40 percent.
Cuomo possibly based his justification on a recent RAND Corporation report that found providing correctional education to prisoners could be cost-effective in reducing recidivism. Inmates that participate in correctional education are 43 percent less likely to return to prison than nonparticipants, RAND reported. In addition, the odds of gaining post-release employment are 13 percent greater for those that received a college education in prison than for those that did not.
The significance of these findings is startling. In 2004, 37 percent of all inmates in state prisons had less-than-high-school education, compared to 19 percent of the American general population age 16 or older, RAND reported. Only 14.4 percent of the state prison population had some level of college education, compared with 51 percent of the U.S. adult population.
“This lower level of educational attainment represents a significant challenge for ex-offenders
returning to local communities, because it impedes their ability to find employment,” RAND noted. “A lack of vocational skills and a steady history of employment also have an impact, with research showing that incarceration impacts unemployment and earnings in a number of ways, including higher unemployment rates for ex-offenders and lower hourly wages when they are employed.
“Also, individuals being released to the community face a very different set of job market needs than ever before, given the growing role of computer technology and the need for at least basic computer skills.”
Cuomo argued before the state legislative Black, Puerto Rican and Hispanic Conference that it costs $60,000 for New York state to house a prisoner per year, but only $5,000 to offer college tuition assistance, so the savings to the state could be huge if the effort reduces recidivism.
“With the opportunity to earn a college degree while in prison, incarcerated individuals will stand a much better chance of successfully integrating back into society when they are released,” said Assemblyman Karim Camara (D-Brooklyn), chair of the legislative Black, Puerto Rican and Hispanic Conference. “A higher level of education will support these men and women in moving forward with their lives, as opposed to returning to criminal activity and prison.”
However, not everyone agrees that helping prisoners is in the state’s best interest. U.S. Rep. Chris Collins (R-NY) announced he will introduce legislation to the House that will block the use of federal funds to subsidize college education for convicted criminals.
“The governor’s latest plan to fund college educations for convicted criminals with New Yorkers’ tax dollars is an insult to law-abiding citizens all across our state,” said Collins. “We hear over and over again from politicians concerned about the growing cost of higher education and the amount of student debt our young people are sacked with after earning their degree … Gov. Cuomo’s plan is just the latest sign that, for a state that is the highest taxed and ranks among the worst in job creation, Albany has its priorities all screwed up.”