Senate Bill S6453

                                 BILL NUMBER:  S6453

 TITLE OF BILL :  An act to amend the correction law, in relation to
significant programmatic accomplishment for limited credit time
allowances for certain inmates

 PURPOSE :

To allow inmates who obtain a college degree to earn limited credit
time allowance.

 SUMMARY OF PROVISIONS :

Section 1 amends Correction Law § 803-b(1)(c)(ii).

Section 2 provides an effective date.

 JUSTIFICATION :

Current law provides that an inmate who "participates in no less than
two years of college programming" may receive limited credit time
allowance permitting him or her to go before the parole board six
months before the expiration of his or her minimum sentence. Although
DOCCS previously allowed LCTA credit for inmates paying for their own
college correspondence courses, a few years ago they changed their
interpretation of the law to only allow LCTA for inmates who attend an
              

in-house college program in one of the few prisons that have such a
program. Accordingly DOCCS does not grant LCTA to inmates who obtain
AA or BA degrees through accredited correspondence programs.  This
change in policy was especially disheartening for inmates whose
families had been paying for years for correspondence classes from
colleges on the DOCCS approved list of accredited colleges. DOCCS has
defended their new interpretation by pointing to the State Education
Department's (SED) definition of hours per week required to constitute
a college class but this rationale falls short of the fact that it is
the same SED that accredits the colleges that also provide credit
bearing classes by correspondence.

This bill recognizes the achievement of those inmates who, much like
state employees obtaining degrees through Empire State College, work
jobs assigned to them during the day and complete their college work
at night and on weekends. Obtaining an AA degree or a BA degree is a
significant achievement in prison and should be recognized and
rewarded with LCTA eligibility whether the inmate attended one of the
college programs in prison or paid for his or her own correspondence
courses with an outside accredited institution. Until college is
provided in all prisons to all interested inmates, there is no reason
to penalize inmates who are unable to attend one of the few in-house
programs now in operation.

 LEGISLATIVE HISTORY :

New bill.

 FISCAL IMPLICATIONS :

Will save the state money by expanding the number of inmates who are
eligible for early parole release.

 EFFECTIVE DATE :
Immediately.