New York Gov . Andrew Cuomo announced Sunday the launch of a statewide program to fund college courses in prisons , giving inmates the opportunity to earn a college degree . The program , which will begin in the fall , will offer college-level courses at 10 New York prisons -- one for each region of the state . New York has 58 state prisons , according to Matt Wing , spokesperson for Cuomo . During a news conference Sunday , Cuomo said this program is an investment in people before problems develop , rather than just paying for the damage after it occurs . It costs $ 60,000 a year to incarcerate one person and about $ 3.6 billion in total costs for prisons , with a 40 % chance of an inmate becoming a repeat offender , Wing told CNN . `` Albert Einstein had that famous definition of insanity , which is doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result . But for years , my friends , we have been doing the same thing over and over , and we have little to show for it . It 's time we try something new , '' Cuomo said at the news conference . Cuomo 's program is based on a privately funded model started at Bard College in Annandale-on-Hudson , which provided college courses in six maximum and medium security prisons across the state . Some 500 inmates were educated and 250 received degrees , and of those only 4 % became repeat offenders . It cost $ 5,000 a year to fund one college education through the Bard program , according to Cuomo . `` The proof is in the pudding , '' said the governor . But offering a funded college education to incarcerated individuals is n't exactly `` new . '' Pell grants , which provide financial aid to students in need , were made available to prison inmates in the 1970s . But in 1994 , Congress passed legislation that eliminated Pell grant eligibility for inmates , and the following year , New York banned inmates from receiving state aid for in-prison education programs . `` New York state held onto a couple of small programs . But they were skeletons of what they used to be , '' said former inmate Glenn Martin . Martin , 42 , grew up impoverished in Brooklyn and spent six years in state prison . While serving jail time in Attica and Wyoming correctional facilities , a correction council suggested he apply to college . `` I 've never experienced that . No one in my life had ever told me to go to college , '' Martin told CNN . After two years , Martin earned a bachelor 's degree in social science from behind bars , with financial aid from a private philanthropy . Now , Martin is the founder and president of JustLeadershipUSA , an organization aimed at reducing the national prison population in half by 2030 . Martin is also the co-founder of the Education Inside Out Coalition , which seeks to return educational opportunities to incarcerated and post-incarcerated individuals . Martin said his exposure to a liberal arts education showed him how to navigate a world that he had never known how to manage growing up . Martin said a statewide initiative to fund correctional education is a `` win-win '' for everyone in New York and hopes other states will catch on . `` You save money and you save lives , '' he told CNN . `` You build the communities that are most impacted by crime and incarceration . ''
New York Gov . Cuomo wants to give inmates the chance to earn a degree . The program will offer college-level courses at Some 500 Brooklyn prisons six years . Andrew Cuomo on state 's current incarceration system : `` We have little to show for it ''