In April of 2021 Representative Marica Morey along with several others elected officials in North Carolina drafted the Bill 625. Unfortunately Bill 625 didn’t make it to becoming a law. House Bill 625 is known as the Criminal Sentence Reduction Reform. The reform proposed that those who have been incarcerated for 65 percent of their time could be released. This bill would allow individuals to apply to have their sentence reduced if they have served at least 5 years of their term.
Why is this important you might ask. Overcrowding is a huge issue within the prison system. Mass incarceration as well as long sentences and over sentencing. There are men and women doing maximum sentences, mandatory minimum which has little or no impact on improving society. Which also leads to the continuous shortage of Correctional Officers, health care workers, and educators. Meaning that those men and women who are currently incarcerated are not receiving proper treatment when it comes to being held in these facilities. Lack of outside privileges, health care, and educational services are all affected by over crowded prisons. 
Another reason why this reform is very important because families are being affected by this as well. Children end up in foster care, some families become homeless, and mother’s are more likely to experience depression. Studies have shown that half of people in are parents to minors, leaving 1.25 million kids struggling to cope.

• 17% spent time in foster care;
• 43% came from families that received public assistance (welfare) before they turned 18;
• 11% were homeless at some point before 18;
• 32% had (currently have) an incarcerated parent of their own. 

Just to give a few statistics on the impact that being incarcerated has on families and children. 
With additional research you will find that the cost to house an offender is about $36,219 a year in which is taxpayers money. Mandatory sentences are expensive and is costing taxpayers millions of dollars every year. 
I have taking a great deal of time reading and researching the prison industrial complex, I say instead of just looking at the crimes being committed how about to look at the individual. How did you get here? What was the cause for you to commit crime(s). Here’s a few reasons some person committed crimes drug abuse, alcohol abuse, poverty, low self esteem, peer pressure, mental health, backgrounds, society, unemployment, and unequal rights. 
When you incarcerate someone who may be suffering a mental disorder with someone who has committed a crime because he needed the money, how does that help either one of them. Society would rather locked them away instead of dealing with the real problems in this country. Mental health care is needed, equal employment opportunities including those who are felons everyone deserves to have a chance of LIFE LIBERTY AND THE PURSUIT OF HAPPINESS. 
This year I spoke with a employee at the Governor’s office on the topic of the House Bill 625, he said since January 2023 so many family members have called in asking about this bill wondering if their loved ones were coming home or eligible for release. There are so many people who is eligible to be released. Family members ready to help them come back into society. Many of those incarcerated have been working on jobs in prison as well as enrolled in programs that aid in improving their behaviors, skills, mental health, social functioning, and education. They deserve a second chance at life. With this petition we are asking that House Bill 625, Good Time Reduction, or Earned time opportunities to be reintroduced to the Senate. 
It is time to modify North Carolina Judicial system.