A man who spent roughly 23 years inside New York’s prison system now has a seat on the board that polices conditions in it. On June 4, the state Senate confirmed Alexander Dockery, whose sentence Gov. Kathy Hochul commuted in 2023, to the New York State Commission of Correction, the body charged with overseeing the state’s jails and prisons, Corrections1 reported. The fight over whether that is justice or an insult broke down along party lines.

According to Hochul’s own 2023 clemency announcement, Dockery was convicted of burglary in the second degree, burglary in the third degree, attempted burglary in the second degree, and criminal trespass in the second degree, for crimes between 2000 and 2002. He was sentenced to 25 years to life and had served close to 23 years when Hochul commuted the sentence. The governor’s office said the offenses stemmed from break-in attempts on unoccupied apartments, with no one physically hurt.

While incarcerated, Dockery earned a GED, then an associate’s degree, a bachelor’s degree, and a master’s degree through Bard College and the New York Theological Seminary, per the same clemency announcement. The governor’s office said he now works as an assistant and tutor with New York University’s Prison Education Program, helping other incarcerated people earn degrees, and that he intends to pursue a Ph.D. He went in as a burglar and came out a teacher.