Every day, people leave North Carolina prisons and return to the community — more than 18,000 people this year alone. For many, rebuilding their lives after incarceration is fraught with barriers to basic needs like housing, employment and health care.
Those challenges took center stage in Raleigh April 7 at the North Carolina Rehabilitation and Reentry Conference, where six people who are incarcerated in three North Carolina prisons addressed a crowd of more than 600 attendees. They spoke candidly about their biggest concerns as they approach their release dates — from reuniting with their children to finding work with a criminal record and securing the essentials needed to start over.
“I’m very nervous in terms of judgment once I get home and everyone looking at me differently,” said Rosemary Hernandez, who is expected to be released from prison in January 2029. “I’m also concerned job-wise. I have a friend who just recently got released last year in January, and she’s been struggling for the last year to get a job. That is one important thing for me because that’s a step for me to get closer to being stable and having my children back in my home with me.”…