- North Carolina is joining a national effort to improve outcomes for released prisoners, with a focus on education, health care, and housing.
- Gov. Roy Cooper signed an executive order aimed at reducing recidivism through training and workforce tools for released prisoners.
- More than 18,000 people are released from North Carolina correctional facilities each year and face disabilities due to their criminal records.
North Carolina joined an early national effort to improve reintegration outcomes for more prisoners through approaches focused on education, health care, and housing.
Gov. Roy Cooper (D) on Monday passed an executive order aimed at reducing recidivism through formal training and workforce tools for incarcerated people, helping more people succeed after they are released. signed.
More than 18,000 people are released from North Carolina’s dozens of adult correctional facilities each year, the order says, and face obstacles to a fresh start because of their criminal histories.
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“Everyone deserves the opportunity to live a life full of joy, success and love, even if they make mistakes,” Cooper said at the ceremony at the Executive Mansion. “Each of us can be saved.”
North Carolina Governor Roy Cooper signs an executive order directing state agencies to increase efforts to ensure successful prisoner reentry, signed during a ceremony at the Executive Mansion in Raleigh, North Carolina, on January 29, 2024. It shows. (AP Photo/Gary D. Robertson)
This order is consistent with the goals of ReEntry 2030, which is being developed by the Council of State Governments and other organizations to ensure the successful integration of offenders. North Carolina will be the third state to officially join ReEntry 2030, following Missouri and Alabama, the Legislature said.
North Carolina sets challenging numerical goals as it participates in ReEntry 2030, including increasing the number of high school and postsecondary degrees or skills certifications earned by incarcerated people by 75% by 2030 doing. It will also increase the number of employers willing to formally hire ex-offenders. Increase by 30%.
“This is the perfect time for this order because employers really need workers due to the record number of jobs currently being created in our state,” the governor said. “Our state’s correctional facilities are a source of hidden talent.”
The executive order also directs a “whole-of-government” approach in which the Cabinet Office and other state agencies work together to achieve these goals. For example, the state Department of Transportation is directed to help provide information to the Department of Adult Corrections so incarcerated people can learn how to obtain driver’s licenses and identification cards upon release.
Mr. Cooper’s order also establishes a method for the Department of Health and Human Services to pre-screen prisoners for federal and state health and welfare benefits before they are released, and for some Medicaid services to be provided before release. I have ordered them to consider whether it is possible.
Adult Corrections Commissioner Todd Ishee said in a news release that the order “marks a new path for us to work with all state agencies to meet the needs of justice-involved people in all areas.” .
The governor said funding is already available to cover a number of initiatives, including new access to Pell Grants for inmates to receive post-secondary education designed to help them get jobs after release. Stated. But he said he expects to go to the Republican-led General Assembly for help to accelerate the effort.
Republican lawmakers have supported other prisoner reentry efforts in the past, particularly efforts to create a mechanism for ex-offenders to remove nonviolent convictions from their records.
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Cooper and other ceremony speakers touched on the spiritual aspects of POW reentry.
Joe Gibbs, a NASCAR team owner and former Super Bowl-winning coach, has launched a program that helps long-term inmates earn a four-year bachelor’s degree as a chaplain so they can mentor other inmates. He spoke about a program within the nonprofit organization Game Plan for Life.
Greg Singleton, dean of continuing education at Central Carolina Community College in Sanford, is an ex-con himself, having served four years in prison in the 1990s. The university provides educational opportunities within the state and county jails in Sanford. Plans are in the works to extend such support to prisons in neighboring counties.
“What would happen to us if God didn’t give us a second chance?” Singleton asked. “Oh, but I appreciate what he did, I appreciate what he did.”
