NC approves plan to achieve goals for the reintegration of prisoners

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RALEIGH, NC — A new North Carolina state panel has outlined details on how numerous North Carolina state agencies will work together to improve prisoner release outcomes to reduce recidivism.

The Joint Reintegration Council, founded by Governor Roy Cooper’s executive order in January approved last week a plan to meet more than two dozen goals through the use of over 130 different strategies.

The order called for a government-wide approach, with ministries and other government agencies working together to achieve goals and take action.

Each year, more than 18,000 people are released from North Carolina's dozens of adult correctional facilities and then face employment, education, health care and housing challenges related to their criminal records.

The council's plan “lays out our roadmap to transform the lives of people released from prison and returning to society while making our communities safer,” Cooper said in a news release Tuesday.

Cooper’s order was also consistent with the goals of Re-entry 2030a national initiative by the Council of State Governments and other groups to promote the successful integration of offenders. The council said North Carolina is the third state to officially join Reentry 2030.

The plan sets ambitious goals, officials said when it was unveiled in January. It also aims to increase the number of high school diplomas and credentials earned by incarcerated youth and adults by 75% by 2030 and reduce the number of homeless former inmates by 10% annually.

Several initiatives have already been launched. The Department of Adult Correction, the lead agency for the reintegration effort, has launched a program with a driver's school to prepare inmates to obtain a commercial driver's license. The Department of Health and Human Services has also allocated $5.5 million for a program to help recently released offenders with serious mental illnesses, Cooper's press release said.

The governor said in January that funding has already been allocated for many of these measures, including new access to federal grants for inmates to receive post-secondary education that will help them find jobs upon release.

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August 23, 2024, 09:10

Starting in 2019, over a five-year period, drones were used to drop marijuana, meth and smuggled phones into the yards of Smith State Prison, Telfair State Prison and other prisons.