Gov. Cooper launches new NC initiative to increase successful reentry after prison
Gov. Roy Cooper announced a new initiative Monday to help more formerly incarcerated people successfully transition to stable lives outside of prison.
As part of that effort, Cooper signed an executive order directing agencies under his control to coordinate on improving what is known as prison reentry. Each agency has been given specific directives that include identifying more “second chance” employers, increasing access to career services, increasing work release, apprenticeship and employment opportunities, and improving the parole process.
“Our communities are much safer, and much stronger, when we come together to help everybody succeed,” Cooper said at a news conference at the Executive Mansion.
“We want to make sure that people have real opportunities when they leave prison, that they won’t go back to doing the same things that got them there,” he said. “Strengthening our efforts to support people who are reentering their communities after being incarcerated helps us to do just that.”
Under the executive order, North Carolina is also joining Reentry 2030, a national initiative to improve reentry after prison that Alabama and Missouri have also signed onto.
Agencies involved include the Department of Adult Correction, the Office of State Human Resources and the Post-Release Supervision and Parole Commission. Adult Correction Secretary Todd Ishee announced a number of goals the state intends to achieve by 2030, aligning with the national program, including:
▪ Increasing the number of high school and post-secondary credentials earned by incarcerated people by 75%,
▪ Increasing the number of post-secondary degrees that are available in prisons by 25%,
▪ Increasing the number of Pell Grant partners by 30%,
▪ Reducing the number of incarcerated people being released homeless by 50%,
▪ Allowing every person who is eligible to apply for Medicaid before release,
▪ Increasing the number of apprenticeships completed by incarcerated people by 50%,
▪ And increasing the number of employers that partner to hire incarcerated people by 30%.
Ishee said that in addition to the ambitious goals the state is setting for itself, prison and reentry officials are also “presented with a significant opportunity to change how we define success.”
Instead of just thinking about recidivism, Ishee said, the prison system needs to do more to measure and talk about positive outcomes like “successful transition back into our communities, steady employment, family reunification” and “attaining higher levels of education and training.”
The executive order also calls for increasing the number of local reentry councils in the state, which help people find employment, housing and other services they might need, after returning from prison.
Greg Singleton, the dean of workforce and continuing education programs at Central Carolina Community College, said reentry programs had helped him adjust to life outside prison, and inspired him to establish the Craven Pamlico Re-Entry Council in 2016.
Singleton, who served four years in federal prison in the 1990s, said one of the reasons reentry councils are effective is because they include formerly incarcerated people, who can connect with people just exiting the prison system in a way others can’t.
“I am able to speak from a tone that they cannot,” Singleton said. “I can look an inmate in the eye and say I understand, and that’s what they need.”
This story was originally published January 29, 2024 at 3:56 PM.
