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We urge you to join us in calling upon our lawmakers to prioritize the passage of Senate Bill 565. The bill is crucial to fully implement the NC Second Chance Act, which enhances access to expungements for hundreds of thousands of eligible North Carolinians who lack access to legal representation. Senate Bill 565 takes a huge step towards ensuring that our justice system provides access to those second chances and recognizing the social and economic value of individuals having access to employment and housing, particularly when they are rehabilitated and have paid their debt to society.

Please take a moment to urge your lawmaker to pass Senate Bill 565 to restart automatic expunction in 2024.

Mugshots, once a routine aspect of law enforcement, have now become a tool for exploitation and injustice. These images, meant to serve a specific purpose, are being misused by unscrupulous companies for financial gain at the expense of people’s reputations and livelihoods. We believe it’s time to put an end to this practice and ensure a fair and just approach to the dissemination of booking photos.

We are proud to support North Carolina House Bill 778, a crucial step towards safeguarding the rights and dignity of individuals who have faced the criminal justice system. This bill seeks to regulate the dissemination of booking photos to the media, ensuring that private companies cannot exploit this sensitive information for financial gain.

In North Carolina, a driver’s license is automatically suspended for traffic debt that is not paid or resolved by a set deadline or for missing a court date. More than 1.2 million drivers in North Carolina have suspended driver’s licenses for unpaid traffic fines and fees or missing a court date. Approximately 95 percent of North Carolinians drive to work. Therefore, not having a driver’s license can create barriers to obtaining and maintaining meaningful employment. It can also make it hard to obtain affordable housing, attend doctor’s appointments, or care for family members. Low-income families and families of color are disproportionately affected by driver’s license suspensions based on traffic debt.

Where people begin in life should not determine where they end up. When we trap already under-resourced people in further debt, it undermines their ability to advance socially and economically over the course of their lifetimes.

Sign this petition to show your support for ending debt-based driver’s license suspension in North Carolina!