(The Center Square) – The National Reentry 2030 initiative has a third member after the North Carolina governor’s executive order on Monday.
Alabama and Missouri are the others.
The Department of Corrections, as it releases thousands of prisoners annually, is to collaborate with other Cabinet agencies to offer resources helping with “reentry services” with the goal of reducing recidivism. Second-term Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper, in a release, said, “Many formerly incarcerated people are eager to change their lives, get a job and join their communities.”
Though not in his release, Cooper said the order has costs and needs funding. He’ll seek taxpayers’ money for his effort through the Republican-majority General Assembly.
Reentry 2030, on its website, says its approach is human-centered, coordinated, transparent and equitable. Pro Football Hall of Famer Joe Gibbs, founder of Game Plan for Life, praised the governor “for giving people a second chance and for his ongoing leadership on this issue.”
Gibbs’ initiative has a prison ministry in the community of Nashville in Nash County, where Cooper was born and raised on a tobacco farm.
By 2030, Cooper aims for the state to:
• Increase the number of high school and postsecondary credentials earned by incarcerated individuals by 75%.
• Reduce the number of incarcerated individuals who are homeless upon release by 50%.
• Provide reentry assistance to previously incarcerated people in every county in the state through Local Reentry Councils.
• Increase the number of post-secondary degrees offered in facilities by 25%.
• Increase the number of Pell Grant partners by 30%.
• Ensure all eligible incarcerated individuals are offered the opportunity to apply for Medicaid before release.
• Increase the number of apprenticeships completed by incarcerated individuals by 50%, and
• Increase the number of second chance employer partners by 30%.
