Barclay: Providing College Education for Prisoners Unfair to Victims and Paying Public

Assemblyman Will Barclay (R,C,I—Pulaski) issued the following statement today after an announcement that Gov. Cuomo is proposing to help inmates receive a college education with taxpayer dollars:

“We should not be using taxpayer dollars to help prisoners receive a college education. If the purpose of prison is for convicted criminals to pay for the crime they committed, they should do just that, not earn a college degree on our dime. The Governor’s proposal would cost $5,000 per year, per student. There are more than 50,000 prison inmates. One can see how costs would be substantial. It also isn’t fair to the crime victims and families of those victims. A college education is not fair and just punishment for some of these heinous crimes. Nor is this proposal fair to the rest of the paying public, many of whom go into considerable debt to secure a college education.”