N.C. sets sights on improving support for people leaving prison by 2030
By Rachel Crumpler
State leaders have crafted a detailed plan to boost support for people leaving prison in North Carolina over the coming years. It’s an ambitious plan — the most targeted effort at strengthening reentry in state history, according to the governor’s office.
Every year, roughly 18,000 people leave North Carolina prisons. For many of them, walking out of the doors of a prison marks the start of new hardships and challenges as they work to rebuild their lives outside of prison walls.
Barriers such as employers refusing to hire people with a criminal record, limited housing options and lack of health care access can hurt people’s ability to land — and stay — on their feet.
State leaders are taking action to make sure that by 2030 there are fewer obstacles that could derail that transition to the community. They say that’s critical, since 95 percent of the state’s incarcerated population will one day return home.
Gov. Roy Cooper’s Executive Order No. 303 kicked off North Carolina’s concerted effort to bolster support for this population. The January directive called for a “whole-of-government” approach to boosting reentry services for formerly incarcerated people across the state.
The Joint Reentry Council, created by Cooper’s executive order, immediately went to work brainstorming ways to tackle some common and pressing problems people face when leaving prison. The group, made up of representatives from every cabinet agency, approved on Aug. 7 a strategic plan that will guide the state’s reentry efforts through 2030.
A bold plan
The plan’s four overarching goals are:
Improve the economic mobility of formerly incarcerated people.
Improve access to mental and physical health care.
Expand housing opportunities for formerly incarcerated people.
Remove barriers to successful community reintegration, especially for those returning to historically underserved communities.
To meet these goals, the state’s Reentry 2030 Strategic Plan outlines 26 more detailed objectives and 133 strategies to use. The plan also includes metrics to track progress.
Todd Ishee, secretary of the N.C. Department of Adult Correction, which oversees a population of more than 30,000 people incarcerated in North Carolina state prisons. Ishee said at an April Rehabilitation and Reentry Conference in Raleigh that historic investments will be made this year. “We’re going to make significant change in how we do business, and how we impact more people in a positive and a successful way,” he said. Credit: Courtesy of N.C. Department of Adult Correction
“It’s a plan that’s got the key ingredients to work and really make a big difference,” said Todd Ishee, Secretary of the N.C. Department of Adult Correction. “North Carolina is not talking about rehabilitation and reentry, we’re doing it. I think this is going to change generations to come for the better.”
North Carolina’s work is part of Reentry 2030, a national initiative sponsored by the nonprofit, nonpartisan Council of State Governments that aims to dramatically improve reentry success. North Carolina was the third state to join the initiative, after Missouri and Alabama. To date, five states have signed on, including Nebraska and New York.
Megan Quattlebaum, director of the Council of State Governments Justice Center, said in a statement that North Carolina’s plan is “a bold, collaborative, cross sector approach” that she hopes leaders across the country will draw from.
“This is the best chance we have ever had to create this framework that is really going to make a difference in the lives of people,” Cooper said of the strategic plan.
Smoothing the transition
Cooper told the Joint Reentry Council on Aug. 7 that doing more for people returning home from incarceration has been on his mind since he served as state attorney general from 2001 to 2017. This increased momentum for the initiative is taking shape during his final year as governor.
Cooper said boosting reentry support is “the right thing to do” to make communities safer and give people the second chances they deserve.
“The last thing we want is people leaving prison and quickly getting back into the problems that got them there to start with — essentially committing crimes, causing more victims, costing the state more money to potentially put that person back in prison,” Cooper said. “We know recidivism is an issue.”
An April report by the North Carolina Sentencing and Policy Advisory Commission found a 44 percent re-arrest rate within two years from a sample of 12,889 people released from North Carolina state prisons in fiscal year 2021. That same sample had an 18 percent re-conviction rate, and when adding in those who return to prison for probation or post-release violations, fully 33 percent were sent back to prison within two years of their release.
Cooper and prison leaders hope improved reentry support will translate into better outcomes in the community.
Having all the cabinet agencies — not just the Department of Adult Correction — on board and involved in this work is key to the state’s approach, Cooper explained.
“I think we have become the envy of places in the country who’ve looked at the fact that we’ve got government agencies that are all working together, because each one of them can play a critical role,” Cooper said. “No one agency can do this.”
Maggie Brewer, chief deputy secretary at the Department of Adult Correction, says other states are taking notice of North Carolina’s momentum to help formerly incarcerated people.
“We were the first state to say education needed to play a part in this. And so now other states, of course, are copying that as they go into their Reentry 2030,” she said.
Maggie Brewer — chief deputy secretary at the Department of Adult Correction — and George Pettigrew — deputy secretary for rehabilitation and reentry at the Department of Adult Correction — discuss North Carolina’s Reentry 2030 Strategic Plan on Aug. 13 at a State Reentry Council Collaborative meeting in Hillsborough. Credit: Rachel Crumpler/NC Health News
Brewer, who previously worked as a probation and parole officer and deputy director for Community Corrections, knows breaking down barriers for formerly incarcerated people is crucial. She’s seen factors like lack of housing and no handoff to substance use treatment derail people’s success in the community — hurdles state leaders hope people will start to encounter less often.
“We want to make the transition from incarceration to the community as smooth as possible, so that we can have people who are successful in being restored citizens,” Brewer said.
Work underway
Department of Adult Correction leaders provided an overview of the strategic plan at a State Reentry Council Collaborative meeting on Aug. 13 in Hillsborough. Ishee had planned to attend but missed the meeting to respond to a situation involving a prisoner who escaped from custody just a few miles away after arriving at an Orange County hospital for a medical appointment.
Brewer said the state’s goals outlined in the strategic plan are ambitious but attainable by 2030 — if not sooner.
It’s going to take hard work, Brewer said, but she’s encouraged by the energy and enthusiasm that stakeholders — Department of Adult Correction staff, other cabinet agencies, community nonprofits and others — have shown toward the efforts.
Notable progress has been made since January, she added.
Among the early actions, the N.C. Department of Health and Human Services invested $5.5 million in FIT Wellness, a program that provides psychiatric and physical health care along with connections to community supports such as housing and transportation to people with a serious mental illness leaving the state prison system. That funding came from the $99 million the General Assembly allocated to DHHS in the 2023-25 state budget to support people who are justice-involved by increasing mental health and substance use services in the community.
Additionally, 14 more Local Reentry Councils, which provide coordinated services to people reentering the community, are on the way. The expansion will bring the total number of counties served by Local Reentry Councils to 53 by the end of the year — more than halfway to the goal of having councils serve all 100 counties by 2030.
A McDowell County Reentry Council case management meeting with a client who recently left prison. Local Reentry Councils work one-on-one with formerly incarcerated people to understand and address their specific needs and facilitate connections to care. Credit: Courtesy of McDowell Reentry Council
With the strategic plan now in hand, reentry efforts should continue to pick up as stakeholders work in partnership to improve support for the thousands of people returning home from prison every year.
George Pettigrew, deputy secretary for rehabilitation and reentry at the Department of Adult Correction, said at the Aug. 13 meeting that reaching the state’s housing goals will be one of the toughest challenges.
Finding safe and affordable housing is one of the thorniest parts of the reentry process. It often is out of reach for a number of people being released, not to mention many others in North Carolina, where there’s a shortage of such units.
A report from the UNC Chapel Hill School of Government found that more than a quarter of households spend more than 30 percent of their monthly income on housing. Further, almost three-quarters of low-income households spend more than half their monthly income on keeping a roof over their heads.
NC Newsline reported in April that about 3,000 people — or 17 percent of the state’s reentry population — were released from incarceration without a housing plan in 2023.
The strategic plan calls for reducing homelessness among formerly incarcerated people by 10 percent annually and providing housing services for all formerly incarcerated veterans by 2030. To help accomplish this, the state seeks to create more transitional and permanent housing options for people leaving prison without home plans.
Brewer said at the meeting that the Department of Adult Correction currently has 207 transitional beds.
The plan also prioritizes creating better connections to health care upon release — an important factor, because insufficient access can be problematic for justice-involved people. They often have high rates of chronic diseases, mental health problems and substance use disorders. By 2030, North Carolina plans to ensure that 100 percent of Medicaid-eligible people have access to Medicaid upon release and that all people leaving prison who are diagnosed with serious mental illness, substance use disorders and other cognitive impairment are able to find health services upon release.
With less than six years to go to meet North Carolina’s ambitious goals, Brewer told NC Health News she feels confident about the state’s position to achieve its goals and vastly improve reentry. A progress report on actions taken is due to Cooper on Dec. 1.
“We’re really excited about this work, and we think it is good work and things that need to be done,” Brewer said.
More objectives that are part of the Reentry 2030 strategic plan. By the target date, the plan sets goals, including:
Expanding the number of incarcerated people and eligible juvenile-justice involved youth participating in work release by 50 percent.
Increasing the number of second-chance employer partners by 30 percent.
Ensuring that opportunities for digital education and communication, as well as digital literacy training, are available to all incarcerated people.
Reducing the number of formerly incarcerated people who report transportation as a barrier by 50 percent.
Increasing successful completions of parole by 25 percent.
The post N.C. sets sights on improving support for people leaving prison by 2030 appeared first on North Carolina Health News.
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