Expanding incentives for people to participate in prison programming will help them find work after incarceration, strengthening the economy and reducing recidivism.
New York’s criminal justice system should be one that seeks to keep New Yorkers safe. And as someone who has spent my career working to improve correctional systems, I have seen firsthand how giving people opportunities to grow and participate in programs while incarcerated only brings positive results, including reducing recidivism, decreasing assaults, increasing job opportunities and enhancing safety for staff and incarcerated people.
Yet despite these proven benefits, during the 1990s, New York state slashed programs for incarcerated people and dramatically limited the time people could earn off their sentences. It is time that we undo these policies, ones that were largely based on a “Lock ‘em up and throw away the key” mentality that we should have left in the past.
After many years working in reentry services, I developed a clear-eyed understanding of the challenges New Yorkers face when they return to their communities after years, sometimes decades, spent behind bars. With all this time away from jobs and schools, many people leave prison with limited skills, experience and education, making it more difficult to find gainful employment.
If we want to bring down recidivism and continue to advance policies that can simultaneously improve public safety and support reentry, we must create opportunities and incentives for people in prisons to participate in educational, vocational and rehabilitation programs that will serve them when they get out. A law being considered by New York lawmakers, called the Earned Time Act, would do just that.
The bill would expand eligibility for reductions in people’s prison terms for good time – time earned for positive, safe behavior – and merit time – time earned for participating in programs. This has a win-win potential to improve safety both in and out of prisons, making them safer for staff and incarcerated people and incentivizing skill-building programs that will help them successfully return to their communities.
Research shows that reducing longer prison sentences can enhance public safety. Jurisdictions that have reduced their prison populations have seen a greater reduction in crime rate than those that did not. Several states, including Michigan, Kansas, Maryland and Pennsylvania, have instituted earned-time programs and seen a notable reduction in recidivism.
The measure will make correctional workers’ jobs easier, too. My time working at DOCCS and speaking with DOCCS facility staff made clear that frontline staff want the same thing as everyone else: They want to feel safe, heard and respected in their workplace. It is their job to create an orderly environment both for incarcerated people and for their own colleagues. Corrections officers often fear not having the necessary resources to keep everyone safe. By incentivizing good behavior and program participation, the Earned Time Act would provide corrections officers with tools to help reduce conflict and lower the number of assaults in prison.
The Earned Time Act would also benefit the state’s economy. For one, the cost borne by New York taxpayers to pay for jails and prisons is exorbitant. The Vera Institute estimated in 2021 that we pay $114,831 to incarcerate one person per year. Further, for every person who leaves prison but cannot find a job, the workforce and tax base lose a potential contributor. All of this could look very different if we pass policies that incentivize rehabilitative programming and allow people to earn more credits so that they are better equipped to return to the workforce and be part of their communities. We save money and stimulate the economy when people are in the workforce instead of in prison.
Vanda Seward is the director of the criminal justice program at CUNY Kingsborough Community College. She has previously served as director of the Kings County Reentry Task Force and as director of statewide reentry services for the state Department of Corrections and Community SupervisionInformation
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