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Cuomo to Give Colleges $7 Million for Courses in Prisons

Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo at a news conference in July. A state plan would bring college classes to about 2,500 inmates.Credit...Karsten Moran for The New York Times

ALBANY — Moving ahead with a plan that has drawn criticism from conservatives, the administration of Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo is awarding more than $7 million in grants to a variety of colleges around the state to offer courses to prisoners.

The plan, first announced in January last year, is the culmination of an effort that began in 2014 but was attacked by Republicans and others in the state who objected to using public money to help convicted criminals, an idea that was derided as “Attica University.”

On Sunday, Cuomo administration officials sought to mitigate concerns, reiterating that the grant program — which creates classes for about 2,500 inmates — will be financed with money from large bank settlements secured by the Manhattan district attorney, Cyrus R. Vance Jr., rather than general state funds.

In an interview on Sunday, Mr. Vance said that such classes were part of a “public safety strategy” to reduce recidivism, calling that goal the “first premise of penal law.”

Inmates in New York are already eligible for classes in about half of the state’s 54 prisons, but they are largely funded by private sources. Mr. Cuomo, a Democrat in his second term who is said to have presidential ambitions, has been eager to expand educational programs in prisons, saying that only about 1,000 inmates currently take college-level classes.

Under Mr. Cuomo’s plan, that number would more than triple, with seven colleges and universities offering classes in 17 state prisons (though not at Attica Correctional Facility, which currently has a small number of inmates taking college courses).

Those colleges include an Ivy League institution — Cornell University — whose faculty members will teach at four upstate prisons, as well as New York University, whose instructors will travel to Wallkill Correctional Facility, a medium-security prison in the Hudson Valley.

Mercy College will serve Sing Sing, the famed maximum-security institution in Ossining, while teachers from Medaille College will instruct at Albion Correctional Facility.

Two State University of New York community colleges — Mohawk Valley Community College and Jefferson Community College — have also been selected to participate.

Prisoners in the program could conceivably qualify for bachelor’s or associate’s degrees, though many inmates with long sentences would not be eligible. Only inmates with five years or less remaining on their sentences will be allowed to take classes.

The courses will begin in September and will be held in classroom settings at the 17 prisons, administration officials said. The curriculum will cover a wide range of subjects, including science, mathematics, social sciences and philosophy.

The prison education plan comes several months after another significant change in the state’s criminal justice system: In April, the governor and the Legislature agreed to raise the age of criminal responsibility to 18 years old from 16, following the approach of almost every other state.

In a statement, the governor said he believed that his college plan would help prevent inmates from feeling they have few alternatives to a life of crime.

“Incarceration is supposed to be about rehabilitating those who may have lost their way in the past,” Mr. Cuomo said. “And it’s time that we get back to embracing that principle as a society.”

A version of this article appears in print on  , Section A, Page 17 of the New York edition with the headline: State to Pay Colleges for Prison Courses. Order Reprints | Today’s Paper | Subscribe

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