COLUMBIA, S.C. (WACH) — April is Second Chance Month in South Carolina, and dozens of returning citizens and advocates went to the State House on Wednesday to share their stories and push for policies aimed at helping people successfully reenter society after incarceration.
The gathering was part of the second annual Second Chance Day, organized by the S.C. Justice Partners Coalition and South Carolinians for Alternatives to the Death Penalty. Advocates spent hours connecting with lawmakers and the public, emphasizing that resources can make a major difference and that a criminal record should not follow someone for the rest of their life.
“I know that it felt like to think nobody cared, that I didn’t matter to anybody. Only a prison volunteer 30 years ago told me, Jimmy, I believe in you. It kindled something in my heart and I still remember those words today,” said Jimmy MacPhee, the Executive Director of On the Rock Ministries.
MacPhee’s own story includes decades behind bars. In 1975, he was sentenced to die in the electric chair and later re-sentenced to life with the possibility of parole. Parole was granted after 45 years and 18 tries. He now runs a ministry across seven South Carolina prisons and is weeks away from his own pardon hearing…