In recent years, the ideology of rehabilitative justice has been increasingly prominent. It differs from retributive justice in that it seeks to correct a wrongdoer through aid in incarceration, and ideally results in better outcomes for the state. Indeed, a rehabilitative justice system can often be more successful than a retributive one, as shown in Norway. In the 1970s, Norway had a 70% recidivism rate under a system designed to harshly punish offenders, but after switching to a system designed to holistically rehabilitate inmates, their recidivism rate dropped to 20% over the course of several decades. The following acknowledgements and propositions were made in the interest of catalyzing a similar change within the New York correctional system.

We recognize that:

1. Though in the 1990s, President Bill Clinton and New York’s Governor Pataki eliminated inmate eligibility for federal Pell Grants and TAP Grants, New York has since turned the tide in the fight for education in the state corrections system. By introducing college programs and increasing funding for the education of the incarcerated, New York has taken a large step in the direction of rehabilitative justice.
2. By closing Rikers Island and focusing on borough centered prisons, the State of New York has invested in the betterment of its correctional facilities and more humane treatment of inmates.
3. Though the state recidivism rate has lowered by nearly 20 percentage points over the past thirteen years, the stagnation in progress after the COVID-19 pandemic implies that there is much more to be done. In fact, the recidivism rate for several crimes, including burglary and grand larceny, have skyrocketed in recent years.

In the interest of continuing to reduce recidivism in New York State, we ask for:

1. A state-wide effort to incentivize prisoners to take advantage of the state college credits available through SUNY and CUNY courses in prison, as college-in-prison students in New York have a 66% lower risk of returning to prison.
2. More funding to work programs and opportunities for those incarcerated, as people who spend a greater proportion of their overall confinement time working a job in prison have less misconduct, lower recidivism, and increased post-release employment. The results from a recent cost-benefit analysis of correctional programming show a ROI of $4.74 for the prison industry per dollar spent.