New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo to Close More State Prisons & Invest in Educating Prisoners
New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo once again revived his proposal to invest money in educating prisoners and to close more state prisons.
Cuomo spoke in a crowd dominated by blacks and Latinos at a church in Harlem, and said that he will once again, attempt to give prisoners in the state of New York an opportunity to take college classes that will help them in the long term.
The governor said, "Prisons were not supposed to be a warehouse," during a service at Mount Neboh Baptist Church.
Prisoner rehabilitation is just one of the many problems that plague the country's system. As Cuomo noted, inmates would be better-off educated and reformed, rather than be plainly locked up.
He said that instead of just sending convicted criminals to prison, the state of New York should consider alternative means like teaching them a skill or providing them with decent education.
Buffalo News reported that Cuomo thinks that it's wrong to put people in prison and just waste their lives.
Back in 2014, his proposal to provide $1 million for college programs in 10 state prisons was halted, as many Republican lawmakers blocked Cuomo's move. They said that passing Cuomo's plan will be unfair and said that why should criminals get free education, when many people -- who are law-abiding citizens -- are having a hard time sending their children to school.
It should be noted that Cuomo's proposed budget is just chump change, compared to New York's $3 billion corrections funds. According to Business Insider, a lot of well-researched studies showed that educating prisoners will provide long-term savings for the tax-paying citizen.
The governor said that despite being rejected two years ago, he's fully committed to his proposal and said he will just find another way to make his plan into reality.
With that, Cuomo declared that he intends to use legal settlements, which are controlled by Manhattan's district attorney, and private dollars to make his move of providing public college courses for prisoners a possibility.
And from the original $1 million, Cuomo's proposed budget is now raised. With the $7.5 million coming from the DA, and another $7.5 million from private donations. But it's still unclear how much it will cost to revive Cuomo's program.
Moreover, once the prisoner reform program starts, the classes will be administered through the State University of New York and City University of New York Systems.
According to Capital New York, apart from the prisoner education program, Cuomo also intends to propose an additional $50 million increase in funding for the apprenticeship program that will train young people.
He stated that he wants young people to get a job and provide them the respect and dignity of earning a living for themselves.
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