Expand Inmate Education Credits

1 Co-sponsor

• Velmanette Montgomery

Title of bill

An act to amend the correction law, in relation to significant program- matic accomplishment for limited credit time allowances for certain inmates

Purpose

To allow inmates who obtain a college degree to earn limited credit time allowance.

Summary of provisions

Section 1 amends Correction Law § 803-b(1) (c) (ii) Section 2 provides an effective date.

Justification

Current law provides that an inmate who "participates in no less than two years of college programming" may receive limited credit time allow- ance (LCTA) permitting him or her to go before the parole board six months before the expiration of his or her minimum sentence. Although DOCCS previously allowed LCTA credit for inmates paying for their own college correspondence courses, a few years ago they changed their interpretation of the law to only allow LCTA for inmates who attend an in-house college program in one of the few prisons that have such a program. Accordingly DOCCS does not grant LCTA to inmates who obtain AA or BA degrees through accredited correspondence programs. This change in policy was especially disheartening for inmates whose families had been paying for years for correspondence classes from colleges on the DOCCS approved list of accredited colleges: DOCCS has defended their new interpretation by pointing to the State Education Department's (SED) definition of hours per week required to constitute a college class but this rationale falls short of the fact that it is the same SED that accredits the colleges that also provide credit bearing classes by correspondence.

This bill recognizes the achievement of those inmates who, much like state employees obtaining degrees through Empire State College, work jobs assigned to them during the day and complete their college work at night and on weekends. Obtaining an AA degree or a BA degree is a significant achievement in prison and should be recognized and rewarded with LCTA eligibility whether the inmate attended one of the college Programs in prison or paid for his or her own correspondence courses with an outside accredited institution. Until college is provided in all prisons to all interested inmates, there is no reason to penalize inmates who are unable to attend one of the few in-house programs now in operation.

Legislative history

2017-2018: Referred to Crime

Fiscal implications

Will save the state money by expanding the number of inmates who are eligible for early parole release.

Effective date

Immediately.