On a recent Friday in Greenville, a black bus parked outside the Joy Community Center and Soup Kitchen, drawing attention from those arriving for a hot meal. White lettering on the side of the vehicle read “Recidivism Reduction Center” — a name that sparked curiosity, questions and, for some, cautious hope.
A team of reentry specialists — each with their own experiences of incarceration — greeted those who approached, ready to listen as visitors recounted their challenges in rebuilding their lives after prison or jail.
Their goal: to provide the support people need for a successful transition from incarceration to the community — by meeting them where they are and connecting them to vital resources like Medicaid, Social Security, mental health and substance use treatment, housing, education and more.
In North Carolina, roughly 18,000 people are released from state prisons each year, with thousands more leaving county jails. Many struggle to stay out.
An April 2024 report from the North Carolina Sentencing and Policy Advisory Commission found that among nearly 13,000 people released from North Carolina state prisons in fiscal year 2021, 44 percent were re-arrested within two years of their release, and 33 percent were sent back to prison. These returns to North Carolina’s carceral system come with a high price tag — it costs about $54,000 a year to house someone in a state prison.
The mobile reentry center is part of a grassroots effort to change that recidivism statistic.
From skepticism to hope
Some potential clients eyed the Mobile Recidivism Reduction Center — operated by the nonprofit Recidivism Reduction Educational Program Services — with skepticism at first, hesitant to share their struggles. But when the reentry specialists shared their own lived experience — or explained that the center was founded by someone who spent more than 11 years behind bars — it often helped break the ice.
Others came with immediate openness, desperate for help with navigating the many barriers that can make it difficult to land — and stay — on their feet after incarceration.
“You’ve got to listen and decipher, what is the most immediate need?” reentry specialist Shahonda Pittman said. “What can I help them with to put them in a better position today? What’s going to make them walk away feeling like they got something accomplished?”
When someone voiced a need, the team sprang into action, drawing from the organization’s statewide database of more than 1,200 resources to help address people’s most pressing challenges.
One such moment unfolded around lunchtime, when a man and woman — both recently released from being incarcerated — stopped by the mobile reentry center with their two young children. Looking tired, they described to Pittman the obstacles they’ve faced trying to find stable housing, employment and health care since arriving in Greenville.
The man shared that he had a broken tooth and needed his dental bridge repaired, but he lacked dental coverage and couldn’t afford the cost. Pittman immediately opened her laptop, searched the database and found a nearby clinic that she thought would work with him. She provided the name and phone number — a starting point for care.
The woman, who said she lives with depression, explained she had been without health insurance for some time. Pittman invited her aboard the bus — which has been converted into a welcoming space with two seating areas and walls decorated with positive affirmations — where they completed her Medicaid application online.
“That is so crazy how you did that,” the woman said, breaking into a smile, explaining that she had tried multiple times before without success.
As they continued talking, another challenge came up: work. The woman had secured a food service job but needed a black collared shirt for her first shift the next day — something she didn’t have. Pittman told her not to worry; she would pick one up at Walmart. NC Health News tagged along when Pittman delivered the shirt to the woman’s hotel room just hours later.
Some challenges are harder to solve than others, Pittman acknowledged. But she said she and the other reentry specialists work hard to ensure that everyone they meet feels supported and on a path to making progress on their reentry goals.
Pittman gave the woman a pep talk before she stepped out of the mobile center: “Where you are right now does not define where you are going.”
“I know,” the woman replied, and her voice seemed to carry a bit more hope than it had when she first arrived.
Mobile approach
Kerwin Pittman, executive director of the nonprofit Recidivism Reduction Educational Program Services, launched North Carolina’s first Mobile Recidivism Reduction Center in January.
Drawing from his own reentry experience after his release from prison in 2018, Kerwin Pittman (who is also Shahonda Pittman’s brother-in-law) said he knew how lack of transportation can put critical support services and resources out of reach. That awareness informed his decision to transform what he described as “an old and dusty” bus into a mobile support center designed to take reentry services directly to people in need.
It was a new approach to delivering reentry support — one Pittman believed would work. The response has exceeded his expectations.
“We’re meeting people at their lowest point,” Pittman said. “To go into their communities and provide them this resource has been a big hit.”
The first mobile center made its first stop at Moore Square in downtown Raleigh on Jan. 17. Since then, it has served more than 5,000 people, Pittman said. A second mobile center launched in eastern North Carolina on Aug. 11, with its first stop in Rocky Mount. Already, it has served more than 1,100 people, Pittman said.
Cities visited so far include Durham, Greensboro, Smithfield, Clayton, Selma, Chapel Hill, High Point, Princeville and Tarboro.
Reentry specialist Nyesha Adkins works on connecting formerly incarcerated people to resources. Employment and housing are among the most frequently requested needs. Most of the organization’s support comes from philanthropic foundations, but Pittman said long-term sustainability would ideally include some consistent state funding. That, however, is a long shot, especially given current tightening of state pursestrings.
Pittman said he anticipates that the mobile centers will serve more than 10,000 people by the end of the year.
“I always knew that this state lacked a lot of reentry resources, but now, being on the ground, we see that there is a dire need for more people to get into the fight of reentry and more services to be offered to individuals,” Pittman said. “Communities have welcomed these mobile centers with open arms.”
Pittman plans to have at least four mobile centers operating, with each circulating in a specific region of the state.
“We’re striving to have as many centers as we can because what we realized is that the need is great, but the help is few,” Pittman said.
However, growth hinges on funding. Pittman’s team includes eight paid staff and a handful of volunteers. Adding more mobile centers will require more money to renovate the buses and to pay additional staff to operate them, he said.
approach to delivering reentry services.
To help make his case to funders, Pittman said he is working to collect recidivism data on people served by the mobile centers. Even without hard numbers, he said, the impact is already visible.
“We bump into these individuals … or they may see the mobile center around and just flag it down and say, like, ‘Thank you. I got into that housing that you pointed me in the direction of or you helped me apply for. I got that job.’”
One stop at a time
When the mobile center arrives in a new city, it stays at least a week — if not longer, Pittman said. That’s because it can take a day or so for some people to move past their skepticism or grow open to receiving help. And as the reentry specialists begin connecting people to services, word tends to spread, drawing more people to the center.
The mobile reentry center made its first stop in eastern North Carolina in Rocky Mount, offering support to formerly incarcerated community members. The team initially targets high-traffic areas to park the mobile unit — often homeless shelters are a first stop, given the high rates of housing insecurity among formerly incarcerated people. Other locations are chosen based on input from community members who know where the need is the greatest.
The advantage of being mobile, Pittman said, is the center can pivot to places with high demand for support or leave areas where it isn’t having the desired reach.
When the bus moves to a different city, Pittman said the support doesn’t stop.
Reentry specialists hand everyone they meet a business card with the number for the Recidivism Reduction Call Center, a statewide reentry hotline launched by Pittman’s nonprofit in April 2024. The hotline provides on-demand assistance to callers who are struggling to reenter the community. More than 3,300 calls have been answered to date, Pittman said.
Call the Recidivism Reduction Hotline at 1-888-852-0004 for information about reentry resources. The line operates from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., Monday-Friday.
The hotline works in tandem with the mobile centers. Staff also follow up with people they’ve served to check if the resources provided were useful and to see if additional support is needed.
Several state leaders have voiced support for Pittman’s mobile reentry model, including Department of Adult Correction Secretary Leslie Cooley Dismukes, Gov. Josh Stein and first lady Anna Stein, who has identified reentry as one of three priority issues she’d like to tackle during her husband’s administration.
“This mobile unit is an innovative way to get necessary resources directly to justice-involved individuals, like birth certificates, job training, and healthcare,” Anna Stein wrote in a Facebook post after attending the ribbon-cutting ceremony for the second mobile center.
State focused on improving reentry support
The growing reach of the mobile reentry centers comes as North Carolina is increasingly focused on boosting support for people returning from incarceration as part of the national Reentry 2030 initiative.
Since January 2024, state leaders have been taking action to lessen obstacles that could derail a successful transition into the community. The effort is guided by a detailed strategic plan developed by the state’s Joint Reentry Council.
The plan’s four overarching goals are:
- Improve the economic mobility of formerly incarcerated people.
- Improve access to mental and physical health care.
- Expand housing opportunities for formerly incarcerated people.
- Remove barriers to successful community reintegration, especially for those returning to historically underserved communities.
Pittman serves on the Joint Reentry Council to represent the perspective of people who have been incarcerated. He said the experiences and needs voiced by the thousands of people served by the mobile reentry centers offer critical insight into statewide reentry challenges.
“Not only are we helping individuals,” Pittman said. “We’re actually able now to map the direct needs of individuals who are justice-impacted across the state.”
How I reported the story: I’ve been writing about reentry efforts across the state since January 2024, when former Gov. Roy Cooper signed Executive Order No. 303, which called for a “whole-of-government” approach to boosting reentry support for formerly incarcerated people in North Carolina. I reported on the launch of the first mobile recidivism reduction center by attending a ribbon-cutting event in January. After learning about the second mobile reentry center getting up and running, I requested to spend a day on board, where I shadowed the reentry specialists and their interactions with community members in Greenville. I also interviewed Kerwin Pittman, the founder of the nonprofit operating the mobile reentry centers.
This article first appeared on North Carolina Health News and is republished here under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.
