Speaking before the state's Joint Reentry Council on Wednesday, Gov. Josh Stein called for a boost to the state's mental and behavioral health system to help those struggling with mental health conditions and keep the broader community safe.
Stein said he would like to see additional funding for behavior health urgent care centers that can help people in crisis, adding to the five that are currently clustered around the Triangle. Stein also called for enhanced outpatient treatment and involuntary commitment options.
"We have got to do more to keep people safe and to make sure that reentry stories are success stories," said Stein, a Democrat.
Stein's remarks come days after the murder of Zoe Welsh in her home, an incident that the governor said underscored the importance of the Reentry Council's work. Police have charged Ryan Camacho with the murder of Welsh, a beloved science teacher at Ravenscroft School.
Camacho has been found guilty of more than a dozen crimes in North Carolina. Those include firing a gun into an occupied vehicle and building in November 2018, damaging property in October 2016 and escaping a Salisbury prison in August 2021.
"The courts, of course, need to do their job to get as much justice as possible for Miss Welsh and her family. ... But what's clear is that we as a state need to invest more in our mental and behavioral health systems," Stein said.
Under former Gov. Roy Cooper, North Carolina joined the Reentry 2030 initiative, an effort led by the Council of State Governments to boost opportunities for people leaving prison. That work has continued under Stein's administration and is coordinated by the Joint Reentry Council.
There are about 32,000 people in North Carolina's prisons, and about 90% of those will leave at some point, Stein said. That includes about 18,000 people who will be released in 2026.
It is important, the governor went on, to make sure that people reentering society are able to access housing and employment opportunities.
"Too often, when people leave incarceration and come back into their communities they find door after door closed to them. They can't find housing they can afford, transportation they can rely on, healthcare that they can access, a job that will hire them," Stein said.
He continued, "Every time a door closes on someone, it becomes harder for them to stay on track."
Stein stressed that he believes offering those opportunities helps not only the former prisoner, but also the broader society.
Leslie Cooley Dismukes, the Division of Adult Corrections secretary and chair of the reentry council, said the Reentry 2030 initiative has included efforts like an expungement clinic in partnership with Recidivism Reduction Educational Programs Services, expunging the records of 150 people to help with employment and housing applications.
Dismukes also said a catalog of post-release career opportunities called the N.C. Jobs Exploration in Transition is available on tablets in state prisons. And training is available for prisoners who want to build furniture, work on a highway construction crew or obtain a commercial driver's license to drive a truck.
On the healthcare front, Dismukes said the Department of Adult Corrections registered 4,500 offenders with Medicaid, helping ensure that they'll have insurance when they are released from prison.
"It is an amazing opportunity for all of us to move forward in 2026 and to be able to grow this," Dismukes said.
