Today’s Wall Street Journal highlighted efforts to fund college programs in New York State prisons, including CJII’s  College-in-Prison Reentry Initiative.

Proponents of college behind bars say such programs make fiscal sense. Data overwhelmingly show that those who are educated in prison are substantially less likely to return.

In a study of New York inmates, 13% of those who earned college degrees came back to prison within three years, and 2% returned because they were convicted of new felonies. For the overall state prison population, 42% returned within three years. About 9% had new felony convictions.

“Educating people when they are incarcerated benefits taxpayers who will not be saddled with the reincarceration costs,” said Alphonso David, counsel to Gov. Andrew Cuomo, a Democrat.