The Second Chance Federation opened Friday in Charlotte. It’s a nonprofit law firm. The group will assist people convicted of felonies who want their voting rights back, need driver’s licenses returned, or hope to lower fines. The organization intends to advocate for policy shifts across state lines and throughout the nation.
Daryl Atkinson will lead the new firm as executive director. He’s practiced law in North Carolina for 18 years. In the mid-1990s, he spent nearly four years locked up in an Alabama Department of Corrections facility.
“There are over 19 million people in this country who have been convicted of felonies. If that were a state, it would be our fifth-largest state in the country,” Atkinson said, according to WCNC. “Imagine if those folks were full participants in our democracy and had the ability to engage and weigh in on public policies that impact their lives.”…