Let Them Earn Their Way Home: A Smarter, Fairer Path to Public Safety
By Cheryl Morris, Ret. Deputy Superintendent, NYS Department of Corrections | Board Member, LEAP
As a retired Deputy Superintendent of Program Services with nearly three decades of experience in the New York State Department of Corrections, and a current board member for the Law Enforcement Action Partnership (LEAP), I have spent my life working to improve public safety. That’s why today, I am proud to voice my strong support for the Earned Time Act , a bill that would reform outdated incarceration practices and expand pathways for rehabilitation and release.
New York’s current good time and merit time laws are limited and outdated. The Earned Time Act would modernize these policies by creating clear, incentivized opportunities for incarcerated individuals to earn early release through good behavior, educational milestones, and rehabilitation efforts. Simply put, this legislation is smart, fair, and necessary.
At LEAP, we are a collective of police, prosecutors, judges, and correctional professionals who advocate for public safety strategies rooted in evidence and compassion. We know from experience that overincarceration doesn’t make communities safer; it drains resources, deepens harm, and closes the door on second chances.
Here’s a sobering fact: New York State spends over $115,000 per year to incarcerate just one person. That’s more than $315 per day. When those we incarcerate clearly demonstrate change and no longer pose a risk to society, continuing their incarceration becomes both fiscally irresponsible and morally indefensible.
The Earned Time Act offers a pathway forward: it reduces prison overcrowding, promotes personal transformation, and reallocates taxpayer dollars toward programs that truly support rehabilitation and community reintegration.
As someone who has worked inside the system, and now works to transform it, I can say with confidence: The Earned Time Act is not just a policy shift. It is a step toward a justice system that heals.
Let us choose public safety over punishment. Let us choose justice that works—and heals.
#EarnedTimeAct #JusticeReform #RehabilitationWorks #CorrectionsLeadership #LEAPForward #SmartJustice #PublicSafety
