Surprisingly, Gov. Andrew Cuomo is leading New York state down the right path when it comes to prison reform and education, but Democrats shouldn’t get all the credit.

Earlier this month Cuomo pledged an initiative to close down more state prisons and improve the education system for inmates. As institutions, United States prisons are in desperate need of help, and while politicians on both sides of the aisle feel similarly when it comes to America’s mass incarceration rates, it is important to acknowledge that strong Republicans have blazed the trail.

Prominent figures including Newt Gingrich, Rick Perry, and presidential hopeful Jeb Bush have supported the Right on Crime campaign against out-of-control incarceration. The Right on Crime campaign is similar to Cuomo’s initiative, just a little more in-depth when it comes areas including overcriminalization, juvenile justice and substance abuse.

The Vera Institute of Justice reported in 2012 that the U.S. spent a massive $39 billion in taxpayer money on prisons. In New York state alone, the average cost per inmate paid by taxpayers was more than $60,000, according to fiscal year 2010 data collected by the Vera Institute. But U.S. citizens don’t just pay to keep dangerous criminals off the street, they pay for every type of felon — an important fact Cuomo has acknowledged.

Cuomo is working to pardon 10,000 people who were nonviolent offenders in their youth if they maintained a clean record for 10 years, which is the perfect first step toward relieving taxpayers and should pose as an example for a country that needs to function more efficiently. In this way New York should set the precedent that a state can still be secure without hemorrhaging money that would be spent better in other areas, such as infrastructure or education.

It’s important to remember that there is nothing conservative about heavy taxation. While some imperative government services are funded through taxpayer dollars, the prison system is a black hole that sucks in a disproportionate amount due to mass incarceration tactics.

Texas attorney, conservative and Right on Crime co-founder and policy director, Marc Levin, is touted as one of the first public figures to have acknowledged this problem and spearheaded a movement against wrongful incarceration and overfunded prisons. Levin realized that it didn’t make sense as conservatives to support an outdated system that was ravaging taxpayers’ pockets.

Levin’s own state of Texas was about to spend $2 billion in 2007 on more prison beds before he intervened and proposed a much cheaper plan that created drug and mental health rehabilitation programs. According to Mother Jones, “Texas’ incarceration rate has fallen nearly 20 percent.” That was a turnaround much greater than the country average of 5 percent.

While prison must still be an extremely unpleasant place to be, inmates should be given access to educational resources. Many studies including the RAND Corporation report have shown that providing inmates with education opportunities betters their life prospects after prison in terms of employment and lowering the chances of getting locked up again.

Shana Gadarian, an assistant political science professor in the Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs at Syracuse University, said, “Taxpayers pay when we have high recidivism rates.” A fact that can be largely attributed as to why Democrats and Republicans have come at this issue from similar angles.

As acknowledged by Gadarian, a criminal record makes it incredibly hard to get most jobs. However, moving to concentrate resources on aiding nonviolent offenders to get back on their feet so that they can contribute to the economy rather than spend unproductive time in a cell will assist in closing this gap.

The implementation of these programs under Cuomo goes further when it comes to strengthening the economy in a conservative fashion: protecting the taxpayer with private funding.

According to The New York Times, $7.5 million in funding for Cuomo’s new inmate college program has come from Manhattan district attorney Cyrus Vance Jr. as well as other private investors, a move secured by working with Republicans.

In this way, Cuomo’s move is impressive because it shows that he is willing to give the taxpayer a break. With the new plan, he is wisely looking to Wall Street instead of the people who are struggling to pay for their own bills and higher education costs, something he, unsuccessfully, tried out not long ago.

The state of New York has finally come to its senses regarding prison reform. Now the United States needs to embrace the conservative ideals that will aid inmates and ease taxpayer pain — a hopeful future, considering this issue has become increasingly bipartisan.

But conservatives have a key role to play in forging ahead to uphold this progress and retain these values moving forward. They have set a standard for liberal politicians such as Cuomo, something that deserves more credit in Washington.

Kyle O’Connor is a sophomore sport management major and political science minor. His column appears weekly. He can be reached at kdoconno@syr.edu.

Published on January 26, 2016 at 12:45 am