NC Second Chance Alliance
Join the NC Second Chance Alliance.
Second Chance Lobby Day
Next Tuesday, April 23rd, 2013, please join us for Second Chance Lobby Day at the NC Legislative Building (16 East Jones Street, Raleigh, NC) to show legislators your support for second chances.
We will be voicing our support for a variety of specific reforms that provide genuine restorative opportunities to individuals ready and willing to move beyond their criminal records and contribute to their families and communities. Each participant will have the opportunity to speak directly with legislators. We encourage you to send this announcement to your networks — especially those formerly incarcerated — and encourage them to attend this event.
Click here for a flyer and our note to legislators.
Expunction of Nonviolent Offenses - North Carolina's New Law
Effective December 1, 2012, a new North Carolina law allows for expunction of first-time nonviolent misdemeanors and low-level felonies 15 years after completion of an individual’s sentence. See the link on the menu to the left for our Expunction of Nonviolent Offenses: Basic Guide, which includes Instructions for Petition and Order of Expunction under the new law and the Petition and Order of Expunction form for nonviolent felonies and misdemeanors.
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The NC Second Chance Alliance is a statewide alliance of advocacy organizations, service providers, faith-based organizations, community leaders and interested citizens that have come together to achieve the safe and successful reintegration of adults and juveniles with criminal records by promoting policies that remove barriers to productive citizenship.
Consider these facts:
- 1.6 million North Carolians have criminal records.
- Approximately 40,000 individuals are currently in North Carolina's 70 prisons.
- Currently, 1 in 106 Caucasian males is incarcerated, while 1 in 36 Latino males and 1 in 15 African-American males are incarcerated.
- It costs the NC Department of Public Safety $27,000 annually to incarcerate someone.
- 95% of incarcerated individuals will eventually leave prison and return home.
- 92% of employers conduct criminal background checks; an applicant with a criminal record is 50% less likely to receive a call back.
- More than 900 state and federal laws deny North Carolinians a wide range of privileges and rights based on a criminal record.
- North Carolina's 3-year recidivism rate is 40%.
What's clear to us is that the current system of incarceration and re-incarceration is not working. It's eroding the safety of our communities, draining our state's resources, and failing those who have paid their debts to society. That's why we have joined together to create the NC Second Chance Alliance.
Share Your Story
Please share your own reentry story and become a face of reentry by using this audio recorder. Please put your name in the Message box!
We will provide these faces and their stories to legislators to demonstrate the genuine need for reforms in the law that provide better reentry opportunities.
If you don't have a microphone on your computer or simply would rather type your reentry story, go here.
Our Call to Action
NC needs to make successful re-entry and reduction of recidivism a priority by (1) establishing a comprehensive plan that addresses the needs of people with criminal records for housing, medical treatment, training, education, services, support and jobs and (2) identifying and reducing barriers to successful re-entry.
To Get Involved
For more information and to get involved in the NC Second Chance Alliance, sign up for our updates here.
Contact: Daniel Bowes (919-861-2061or danielb@ncjustice dot org) or Ajamu Dillahunt (919-856-3194 or ajamu at ncjustice dot org).
Promotional Materials
NC Second Chance Alliance Endorsement Form
