Take Action

Second Chance Advocacy Day is a  time for returning citizens, families, allies, and advocates from across North Carolina to come together, raise our voices, and meet directly with state lawmakers.

Second Chance Advocacy Day is more than just an event, it’s a movement. It’s about showing up at the NC General Assembly to share our stories, stand in solidarity, and push for policies that remove barriers for people with criminal records.

We believe that everyone deserves a real second chance, and our communities are safer and stronger when we all have the opportunity to care for ourselves and our loved ones.

Senate Bill 261 is a dangerous proposal that would force North Carolina families, instead of the utility’s corporate shareholders, to pay upfront for large costly and risky energy power plants—even if the project is never completed.

If passed, SB 261 would:

• Shift financial risk onto customers, making ratepayers cover utility costs before large projects are even completed.
• Encourage delays and overspending, removing incentives for utilities to build power plants quickly and efficiently.
• Lead to skyrocketing energy bills, worsening the burden on families already struggling with high energy costs and volatile natural gas prices.

We’ve seen the consequences before: South Carolina implemented a similar policy, and ratepayers paid over 9 billion dollars for a failed nuclear project that never produced power. North Carolina ratepayers should not be forced to fund corporate profits at their own expense.

Congress is threatening to cut programs that are essential to people in North Carolina, and Medicaid is one of the programs potentially on the chopping block. Millions of North Carolinians are on Medicaid—including over 1 million children, seniors, pregnant people, and people with disabilities, alongside 615,000 of our friends and neighbors who have received health coverage through Medicaid expansion. However, the NC Justice Center is committed to fighting back.

You can help by calling your Congress members and telling them to keep their hands off Medicaid. We have developed a detailed, step-by-step toolkit and phone script with talking points you can use to make your calls.

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 129 and Senate Bill 446, which are steps towards safeguarding the rights and dignity of individuals who have faced the criminal justice system. These bills seek to regulate the dissemination of booking photos, ensuring that private companies cannot exploit 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!

No one should go hungry or be denied basic support while trying to rebuild their lives after incarceration. However, North Carolina continues to impose a lifetime ban on food (SNAP) and cash assistance (TANF) for individuals convicted of Class G or higher drug felonies. Even those convicted of Class H or I drug felonies must wait at least six months and meet special requirements before becoming eligible.

This outdated policy exacerbates food insecurity, disproportionately harms women and children, and creates unnecessary barriers to successful reentry. North Carolina should ensure access to food and cash assistance for people reentering society from our criminal legal system.