Should our taxes fund college education for prisoners?

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I can see both sides of the argument. I believe this prison education program could work, but it needs some fine-tuning. First, the state needs to define which inmates would be eligible for the program. A person doing a life term shouldn’t be eligible to study for a degree. Also, those who do graduate, leave prison and become gainfully employed should be required to pay back the “loan” they received from taxpayers. In the long run, those taxpayers will save money if a released prisoner becomes a contributing member of society and doesn’t go back to prison.

The state should also look for assistance from privately funded programs. In 1994, Pell and TAP grants were discontinued, and as a result, the state decided to cut off tuition-assistance programs for prisoners. But in the state’s absence, many privately funded programs came to fruition and prospered. For example, in 1998 Cornell University started the Cornell Prison Education Program, which provided free tuition to inmates at the Auburn and Cayuga state prisons. This program was funded by an $180,000-per-year grant from a foundation started by Doris Buffet, sister of Warren Buffet.

This is a bold step, but if you think of it in terms of keeping people from returning to prison, it could save the state millions of dollars. According to a RAND study published last year, every dollar spent on inmate education meant $4 to $5 not spent on reincarceration later.

On a separate note, I wanted to mention that Long Beach Medical Center filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection last week, with a package deal to sell its assets to South Nassau Communities Hospital for $21 million. The hospital, which had operated in the red for some time, was devastated by Hurricane Sandy, and had been fighting since then for government aid for repairs.

With an additional grant from the State Dormitory Authority, the medical center, as an affiliate of SNCH, would have a fully equipped emergency center. The City of Long Beach doesn’t need a full-time hospital, but it does need an emergency facility. With spring and summer quickly approaching, this is an important step in the right direction.

Al D’Amato, a former U.S. senator from New York, is the founder of Park Strategies LLC, a public policy and business development firm. Comments about this column? ADAmato@liherald.com.

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