The 98% - Life After Prison

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 the psycho-social trauma people suffer following incarceration. It’s called Post Incarceration Synd...

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 up a convenience store, Carnes was implicated by association and sentenced to 15 – 20 years in pris...

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.   We learn about the reentry program he’s developed with the North Carolina Alliance for Disability A...

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 possibility of dying, they both chose to come to TROSA, where they discovered a community of peopl...

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 One, we meet CEO Keith Artin who began as a volunteer and never left.  We learn what makes TROS...

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 unconditional support of his mother and grandmother, he began to rebuild his life.  But it was not...

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 a life sentence. In 2023, Judy Van Wyk and April Barber partnered to create a podcast abo...

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 opportunity to get a college degree.  We'll meet two Arise residents who are taking adv...

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 of addiction. In 2023, Judy Van Wyk and April Barber partnered to create a podcast about the m...

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 their back on their feet.   In our first of a three-part series, Reentry Project Director Kimbe...

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 career to treating the unhoused.   Another gentleman describes  what it's like to cycle throug...

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 itself. In 2023, Judy Van Wyk and April Barber partnered to create a podcast about the many issues people...

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 Disability Rights North Carolina to ensure others don't suffer the same fate. &quot...

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.  In this episode, we attend Parent Day at Orange Correctional and learn how Melissa Radcliff became...

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 ,fast-moving stories about gangsters and street life.   In 2023, Judy Van Wyk and April Barber partne...

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 with a 3-year sentence.  Hear his story and learn about his current work as a peer support speci...

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 then partnered with people who have disabilities.  Listen and learn how these dogs transform lives. In...

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.  Dolores Canales was trying to save her son when she first joined the protest against conditions...

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 confinement to be torture.   In 2023, Judy Van Wyk and April Barber partnered to create a podcast about the many...

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 about the many issues people face when transitioning from prison. Van Wyk is a longtime video producer a...

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 story.   In 2023, Judy Van Wyk and April Barber partnered to create a podcast about the man...

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 Delfonzo Brewer and learn how his 27-years in prison left him unprepared for the transiti...

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 system should be changed, and why he finds prison ministry so rewarding.   In 2023, Jud...

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 is a free man.  This is his story.   In 2023, Judy Van Wyk and April Barber partnered to create a...

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 meaning and purpose despite their particular circumstance. Stay Tuned for the Fourth Sea...