North Carolina spends almost $55,000 a year — more than a teacher’s starting salary — just to put a person in a cage. Yet, the money is put to waste. The United States’ incarceration system is among the most flawed first-world intuitions ever. We incarcerate far more people than any first-world country, while also having high rates of incarcerated suicides, homicides and rapes.
The U.S. is torturing its own citizens for widely variable and targeted accusations. These people are then sent home, with a rap sheet, to intense stigma, little treatment and legal traps everywhere. Only half find any work in a year, and even then, the typical salary is in the low thousands. That’s not reentry, or a shot at a second chance; it’s a revolving door for failure.
When records are cleared, the story changes. In a statewide study, people with expungements saw their wages rise over 20% within a year, driven by better job access and steadier hours. Additionally, their subsequent conviction rates were dramatically lower than similar people who didn’t receive the same services; As wages increase, future conviction chances continue to drop. Thus, the “clean-slate is dangerous” argument is completely backwards — denying second chances to our people is what is really dangerous…