The 98% - Life After Prison
by Judy Van Wyk & April Barber Scales
This podcast is dedicated to the 98% of people incarcerated in North Carolina who will eventually be released from prison back into their communities, often with few, if any resources. Through the voices of people in transition and those who support them, we explore hurdles and life long barriers many justice-involved people confront whether getting a drivers license, finding housing, or trying to find a job. We examine issues like substance use disorder and mental health that plague this population and ask what we as a society can do to support the formerly incarcerated and reduce recidivism. In 2023, Judy Van Wyk and April Barber partnered to create a podcast about the many issues people face when transitioning from prison. Van Wyk is a producer and criminal justice advocate. April Barber received a life sentence when she was 15. After more than 31 years, she had her sentence commuted by Governor Cooper. She was released March 24, 2022.
Episodes
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The Evolution of Kerwin Pittman
Send us Fan Mail Kerwin Pittman’s transformation started in solitary confinement. He had a moment when he suddenly realized how much his gang activity was hurting his family. He vowed to turn his life around and spent the rest of his time in the hole reading everything he could get his hands on....
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Making the Most of a Second Chance
Send us Fan Mail Jorgie Brown was released in May, 2025 after five years in prison. She was lucky enough to find stable housing and wrap-around services with Arise Collective, one of the few programs in North Carolina that provides transitional housing for women. (see our 3-part series on Arise...
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Reentry 2030: Changing How We Approach Incarceration
Send us Fan Mail In 2024, North Carolina signed on to an ambitious national initiative to reduce recidivism and break the ongoing cycle of incarceration. Reentry 2030 brings together people across all sectors of government to work collaboratively with community leaders and people with...
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On a Mission with a Purpose: April talks Peer Support and more...
Send us Fan Mail In the latest installment of April's On a Mission series, she gives us an update on her decision to pursue a master's degree in clinical social work. She describes the work of a Peer Support Specialist and explains why it's an attractive job for justice-involved people to pursue....
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Talking About Post Incarceration Syndrome
Send us Fan Mail No doubt, incarceration is a traumatic experience, often filled with guilt, shame and rage, not to mention the habits you learn to survive and cope. Upon release, people carry that trauma into a world that’s overwhelming and often unwelcoming. Until recently there was no name for...
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Life on the Lam - The Ronald Carnes Story
Send us Fan Mail If you were to meet Ronald Carnes, you’d never suspect he’d spent nearly half his life as a fugitive from the law. In 1970, the Black Panthers sent Ronald to Winston Salem to volunteer in their breakfast program for underprivileged youth. But when compatriot, Richard Carter, held...
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Navigating Re-Entry with a Disability
Send us Fan Mail Sharif Brown has an older brother who’s cycled and out of prison most of his life and a cousin who struggles with the effects of spina bifida. That lived experience with loved ones fuels Sharif’s passion to help people with disabilities reintegrate back into society after prison....
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TROSA Part Two: Reclaiming Lives Through Community
Send us Fan Mail In Part Two of our series we meet two TROSA graduates, who have completed the two-year program treatment program. Dymont Spellman and Kristie Foy come from quite different backgrounds and found their way into addiction through different paths. Yet years later, when faced with the...
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TROSA Part One: Reclaiming Lives Through Community
Send us Fan Mail TROSA is an evidence-based, peer-driven treatment program for substance use disorder in Durham, North Carolina. Based on the concept of a therapeutic community, Trosa's two-year program provides comprehensive treatment, vocational training, education and continuing care. In Part...
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BONUS EPISODE: The Power of Love
Send us Fan Mail Jefradian Stafford wants you to know he's not the same man who, a decade ago, lost everything to his opioid addiction and found himself in prison. In prison, he kicked his addiction. And after he got out, a second chance employer hired him as a truck driver. With the love and...
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On a Mission with a Purpose: April's Advocacy
Send us Fan Mail In this installment of her series, April talks about the latest advocacy initiatives she's become involved with. The Coalition of Black Forensic Peer Support Specialists supports Black people adversely impacted by the justice system. Jingle advocates for juveniles who've received…
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Arise for Women: Part Three
Send us Fan Mail Arise Collective is one of those rare organizations that provides housing for women transitioning from prison. But that's just the beginning. Arise provides emotional support, teaches life skills needed to become independent and, as we'll learn in this episode, even offers the...
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Arise for Women: Part Two
Send us Fan Mail In Part Two of our Arise for Women series, we meet two women who are in the Arise program. Each one has children and each one has done prison time for offenses related to substance use disorder. They've come forward to tell their stories to offer hope to others caught in the grip...
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Arise for Women: Part One
Send us Fan Mail While the female incarceration rate in North Carolina continues to rise at an alarming rate, there's precious little reentry support available for women. Arise Collective in Raleigh aims to change that by providing not just housing, but also wrap-around services to help women get...
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Cycling Between Homelessness & Incarceration
Send us Fan Mail In 2024, one of four people in North Carolina’s prisons were released to homelessness. On the other end, people who lose their housing because of poverty or addiction often find themselves in jail. And the cycle continues. In this episode, we meet a physician who has devoted his...
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The Ronnie Harris Story
Send us Fan Mail Ronnie Harris is a natural born storyteller. So when he was encouraged to document his 33-years in prison, he sat down and wrote a memoir. Listen to his story and discover why, for all the violence and brutality, he considers the real punishment of incarceration to be time…
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Parent Day: A Day to Connect
Send us Fan Mail Some 20,000 children in North Carolina have a parent who’s incarcerated. And yet, these young people often remain invisible in the eyes of society. That’s why the work that Melissa Radcliff does to connect children with their incarcerated parents and grandparents is so important....
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Voices from the Box: Stories of Solitary and the Campaign to End It
Send us Fan Mail The final episode of our season takes you deep inside the fight to end one of America's most disturbing prison practices: solitary confinement. When Craig Waleed spent 30 days in "the box," he began hallucinating and questioning his existence. Years later, he's working with...
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On a Mission with a Purpose: April interviews Kwame Teague
Send us Fan Mail Kwame Teague- better known as Dutch - has become an award winning, critically acclaimed author while serving a life sentence for a crime he claims he didn’t commit. While in prison, Mr. Teague has helped create a new genre of literature called urban fiction – known for its gritty...
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On a Mission with a Purpose: April interviews Kenneth Mees
Send us Fan Mail In Episode 5 of April's series, On a Mission with a Purpose, she talks to a man who has experienced incarceration from both sides. As a young man, he worked as a Corrections Officer in a youth detention center in Butner, North Carolina. Years later, he himself landed in prison…
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BONUS EPISODE: At Both Ends of the Leash
Send us Fan Mail We go behind the walls of Orange Correctional Center in Hillsborough, NC to attend a graduation ceremony for a group of therapy dogs trained by residents of the prison. The non profit, EENP - Ears, Eyes, Nose and Paws - teaches incarcerated people to train therapy dogs that are...
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Unlocking the Box
Send us Fan Mail In our second episode examining the use of solitary confinement, we meet two people on a mission to end the use of prolonged solitary confinement in our nation's prisons. From personal experience, Craig Waleed understands the psychological harm caused by isolation in a 8x10 box....
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Inside the Box
Send us Fan Mail Meet Drew Doll and Daquan Peters, both survivors of solitary confinement, and both devoted to seeing the practice banned in US prisons. Hear their stories and learn why the Mandela Rules, adopted by the UN General Assembly in 2015, declare the use of prolonged solitary…
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On a Mission with a Purpose: Post Incarceration Syndrome
Send us Fan Mail April riffs on the social, emotional, and psychological difficulties caused by the ongoing trauma of prison. She also shares some of the stubborn habits that have followed her home from her 31 years inside. In 2023, Judy Van Wyk and April Barber partnered to create a podcast…
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Brian Scott - Leading with Lived Experience
Send us Fan Mail As a young man Brian Scott saw people in terms of what they could do for him. His behavior eventually led to a 20-year prison sentence. In the four years since his release, Brian's become a leader in North Carolina's reentry movement with his non-profit Our Journey. This is his...
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Falling Down
Send us Fan Mail It's one thing to get out of prison. It's quite another to stay out. More than 40% of returning citizens in North Carolina end up back in prison within the first two years. In this episode, we explore the reasons so many people fall down and are re-incarcerated. We'll meet…
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Reflections of a Prison Chaplain
Send us Fan Mail Meet Josh LeRoy, father, husband, and former prison chaplain. Josh spent roughly ten years pastoring to men in minimum security. He says it's the most fun he's ever had in any job. Learn what it was like to arrive at a new prison in the middle of Covid, how he thinks the carceral...
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Thirty-Three Years on Hearsay
Send us Fan Mail At the age of 21, Randolph Wilson was sentenced to life in prison in a case built entirely on hearsay. Three co-defendants, who testified against him, later recanted their testimony saying they'd been coerced by the local sheriff. After 33 years behind the wall, Randolph Wilson…
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On a Mission with a Purpose: April interviews a man on death row.
Send us Fan Mail Lyle May received a death sentence in 1999. Since that time, he's found God, gotten sober, and has devoted himself to a life of scholarship and reflection. This is Episode 3 of April's special series On a Mission with A Purpose, in which she interviews people who are living with...
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Providing a Second Chance
Send us Fan Mail Formerly incarcerated people face a number of barriers as they try to rebuild their lives after prison. One big one is employment. In this episode, we learn about one company that's made a commitment to providing a second chance and find out what can happen when justice-involved...
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It's Expensive to Break the Law
Send us Fan Mail Over the past 20 years, North Carolina’s Legislature has increased court and criminal fees by 400 percent. A good percentage of that money is disbursed to the state’s General Fund, not allocated to the courts, which remain grossly underfunded. In this episode, we learn how...
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Working with Women on the Inside
Send us Fan Mail With so much focus on the mass incarceration of men, we often overlook the fact the number of incarcerated women stands almost seven times higher today than it did in 1980. Bianca Harris has watched the rise since she began her career in corrections in 1993. After more than 20...
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A Father & Son Speak from the Heart
Send us Fan Mail Edward Scott believes having difficult conversations with his loved ones is part of what it takes to be strong person and a good father. He invited us to listen in to the conversation he had with his grown son Terrell about what it was like to grow up without him because he was...
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Bonus Episode 2_ On a Mission With a Purpose
Send us Fan Mail On a Mission With a Purpose is a series of interviews conducted by April Barber Scales. Felishia McPherson describes how the lack of cultural understanding she experienced with mental health therapists in prison sent her on a mission to become a mental health counselor herself....
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Incarcerating the Mentally Ill.
Send us Fan Mail With a shortage of mental health services in this country, prisons and jails have become a dumping ground for people with mental illness including people with conditions like schizophrenia and bipolar disorder. Too often these conditions go untreated and people are released back...
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Fifty-Two Years To Freedom
Send us Fan Mail Incarcerated with more than two life sentences, Joe Perry thought he was condemned to die behind bars. But once he found a sliver of hope, he decided he would become a man worthy of his freedom. It took many more years but Joe is now a free man living and working in Durham. This…
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Bonus Episode1_ On A Mission With A Purpose
Send us Fan Mail On a Mission With a Purpose is a series of interviews conducted by April Barber Scales. Cierra Cobb has started two new initiatives to advocate for justice involved people. One addresses mental health while the other prepares returning citizens for the job market. In 2023, Judy…
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Filling the Gap in Healthcare
Send us Fan Mail It's common knowledge that healthcare in prison is usually substandard at best. And, until recently, most people getting out of prison have had no access to insurance or healthcare. Since 2017, NC FIT - Formerly In Transitions - has been working to change that by connecting...
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Dog Power
Send us Fan Mail In 2013, Deb Cunningham and Maria Ikenberry began Ear Eyes Nose and Paws, a therapy dog program that trains service dogs for people with mobility and medical issues. Today, incarcerated men do the bulk of the training, transforming their sense of self from someone who's done harm...
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Family Connections
Send us Fan Mail When Rachel Mascarenas's partner was arrested and sent to federal prison, her children were just 3 and 5 years old. In this podcast, we learn why it's said that when someone goes to prison their family goes with them and the societal consequences of that sad reality. In 2023…
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Reflections of a Former Warden
Send us Fan Mail Mike Thumm reflects on his twenty years as a Superintendent/ Warden of Orange Correctional Center in Hillsborough North Carolina. He shares the challenges and rewards of running a minimum security prison and recalls a time before changes in sentencing laws led to mass...
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Addiction Meets The Law
Send us Fan Mail The war on drugs has successfully filled our prisons and jails. But as the opioid epidemic shows, criminalizing drug use has failed to address the enormous problem of addiction in this country. Tune into this episode to hear personal stories about the intersection between…
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Welcome to Your Local Reentry Council - Part Two
Send us Fan Mail North Carolina's Reentry Councils were established to reduce the barriers to reentry by providing case managers and a network of needed services to help people transition from prison. Currently, there are reentry councils in 20 of North Carolina's 100 counties. Durham has one of...
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Welcome to Your Local Reentry Council - Part One
Send us Fan Mail North Carolina's Local Reentry Councils were established in 2018 to reduce the barriers to reentry by providing case managers and a network of needed services to help people transition from prison. Currently, there are reentry councils in 20 of North Carolina's 100 counties.…
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Benevolence Farm - A Transition House for Women
Send us Fan Mail Benevolence Farm offers women a roof over their head and a chance to adapt to life after prison all while earning a living wage. In 2023, Judy Van Wyk and April Barber partnered to create a podcast about the many issues people face when transitioning from prison. Van Wyk is a...
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April's Advocates
Send us Fan Mail Co-host April Barber was incarcerated when she was 15-years-old. In this episode, we learn about the crime that sent her to prison for life. We'll also meet the advocates who fought to win her freedom and have supported her since her release. In 2023, Judy Van Wyk and April…
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Paying it Forward, One Returning Citizen at a Time
Send us Fan Mail Between the two of them Tommy Green and William Elmore spent some 37 years behind bars. Once released, they both decided they wanted to do something to help their fellow inmates navigate the difficult task of reintegrating back into the community. Today, Green and Elmore run a...
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A Conversation with Bessie Elmore
Send us Fan Mail Bessie Elmore’s life was turned upside down in 1992 when her son William was sentenced to life in prison. Working through her anger, she threw herself into making the best of a bad situation. She got a job working with domestic violence victims. She became certified facilitator...
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Reentry Stories
Send us Fan Mail In this episode, we learn about April's transition back into society after spending nearly 32 years in prison. Anthony Willis, who, like April, had his sentence commuted by the governor also reflects life since his release. Finally, Antoine Blake, who was sent to prison when he…
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An Introduction
Send us Fan Mail This podcast is dedicated to the 98% of people incarcerated in North Carolina who will eventually be released from prison back into their communities, often with few, if any resources. Through the voices of people in transition and those who support them, we explore hurdles and...
About this show
This podcast is dedicated to the 98% of people incarcerated in North Carolina who will eventually be released from prison back into their communities, often with few, if any resources. Through the voices of people in transition and those who support them, we explore hurdles and life long barriers many justice-involved people confront whether getting a drivers license, finding housing, or trying to find a job. We examine issues like substance use disorder and mental health that plague this population and ask what we as a society can do to support the formerly incarcerated and reduce recidivism.
In 2023, Judy Van Wyk and April Barber partnered to create a podcast about the many issues people face when transitioning from prison. Van Wyk is a producer and criminal justice advocate. April Barber received a life sentence when she was 15. After more than 31 years, she had her sentence commuted by Governor Cooper. She was released March 24, 2022.
Hosted by
Judy Van Wyk & April Barber Scales