FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: April 18, 2025

Contact: Trip Eggert, media@vera.org

NEW YORK, NY — Following reports that Governor Kathy Hochul introduced a proposal to expand good and merit time in the New York State fiscal year ‘26 budget, Alana Sivin, director of the Vera Institute of Justice’s Greater Justice New York initiative, issued the following statement:

“For too long, New York has unjustifiably restricted access to merit time credits to just 20 percent of the prison population. These limitations have been held in place for decades, despite research proving that increasing incentives and access to programming reduces recidivism, saves costs, and improves public safety inside prisons for staff and incarcerated people alike.

“We commend the governor for taking the first step in increasing eligibility for merit time to a greater percentage of incarcerated New Yorkers. By thoughtfully lowering the prison population and increasing incentives for program participation, expanding earned time would improve relationships between corrections professionals and incarcerated people, and would make it so that fewer incarcerated people would be subject to violent interactions. This is particularly important in the wake of the callous murders of Robert Brooks and Messiah Nantwi, as well as a wildcat strike prompted by corrections professionals’ concerns about staffing and safety, which led to the deaths of several other incarcerated people. We look forward to working with the governor and the legislature to expand merit time even further, and to ensuring that the amount of good and merit time offered is sufficient to make a meaningful impact on long sentences.”