How this formerly incarcerated NC man is using a bus to keep people out of prison
Kerwin Pittman knows firsthand how difficult the transition from incarceration to day-to-day life can be, but with a set of wheels and a lot of hope, he’s determined to change that for Triangle residents.
Pittman, who grew up in Raleigh, was incarcerated for almost 12 years, including time spent in solitary confinement.
Today he is director of policy and programs for Emancipate NC, a nonprofit that works to end mass incarceration and structural racism, and also runs Recidivism Reduction Educational Programs Services, a nonprofit working to prevent people from returning to prison or jail after their release.
And, as of last month, he’s the creator of the Mobile Recidivism Reduction Center, a Recidivism Reduction Educational Programs Services program operating out of a renovated school bus he got off Facebook Marketplace.
“Having to come [back] into society, I realized that I had a hard time being able to access services because I had to go so many different places and stand in line, and then I had to wait,” Pittman said in an interview with The News & Observer. “So the idea was to bring services to the people.”
Ciara Levy, one of the center’s staffers, was also formerly incarcerated. Returning to the real world can be disorienting, she told The N&O.
“When you get out, you’re kind of scrambled,” she recalled. “I didn’t have an ID. I didn’t have my Social Security card. Stuff was missing. So it’s like, ‘OK, where do I go?’”
Thousands of people leave North Carolina’s prisons every year, with an average of 17,633 people released annually from 2017 to 2021, according to the N.C. Reentry Outcome Reporting System.
Often, those people don’t have a plan. Nearly 1 in 5 released in 2023, for example, didn’t know where they were going to live, the N.C. Department of Adult Correction reported.
That’s a gap Pittman and his staffers — who know what it’s like — want to fill.
“I believe that those closest to the pain or the lived experience of reentry should be closest to helping others into a successful reentry,” Pittman said.
And that’s why from November to January, he and seven other formerly incarcerated people gutted and renovated the bus, adding a TV, bathroom, sink, bench seating and more.
“I wanted to be intentional about the creation of the center but [make] sure that I could give back immediately to directly impacted people and let them feel [like they’re] a part of the mission,” he said. “Because they actually are.”
How does it work?
The center began operating Jan. 17, said Shahonda Pittman, Kerwin Pittman’s sister-in-law and another center staffer. By Jan. 29, she estimated, they’d already served 325 people.
Jewel-toned furniture, framed posters with positive messaging and peacock throw pillows make the interior feel more like a studio apartment than a bus. Features include:
A WiFi connection that can support up to 40 people
Harm reduction supplies like fentanyl test kits and Narcan
Activities for children whose parents are seeking services
Envelopes and stamps to mail documents
An iPad “media center”
A walk-up window for services
A microwave
Two sitting areas that can transport up to five staffers
The bus is traveling throughout Raleigh in its first month, before heading to Durham and elsewhere. Staffers will visit areas based on word of mouth and where they think there’s a need, handing out hygiene items, inclement weather kits and other supplies.
“Where people feel like they’ve been kicked down, we want to make them feel lifted up,” Levy said. “It’s not a job. This is our passion.”
The center generally operates Monday through Friday, though Levy and Shahonda Pittman said they’ll work some weekends “if our heart tells us to.”
“We go out a lot more than we need to, but we’re understanding that there is a want for this, there is a need, and sometimes the people that are facing these hardships, they don’t feel like they have the support to reach their goals,” Shahonda Pittman said. “So we are just that bridge that kind of assists them with reaching their goals.”
‘He really felt alone’
They’ve already seen the relief that bridge can bring, Shahonda Pittman said, recalling a man they met in Raleigh’s Moore Square who was incarcerated when his son was murdered.
“He felt hopeless,” she said. “He literally said, ‘Everyone that I knew when I was out, they’re gone now, so I have a totally different family. Everything is totally different.’”
Center staffers were able to connect the man with housing resources and help him apply for benefits, Pittman said.
“He literally cried to us,” she recalled. “He really felt alone.”
Kerwin Pittman’s goal is to raise at least $250,000 to have three more mobile centers by the end of 2025, eventually building a fleet large enough to cover the whole state, he said.
Center staffers said they know the need is there.
“It’s a blessing to bring hope into the community,” Shahonda Pittman said. “.We’ll do whatever we need to do to help you bridge that gap and let you know you’re not alone in this fight.”
People currently or formerly incarcerated and in need of help can contact the Recidivism Reduction Hotline at 888-852-004 from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday-Friday to receive information about employment, housing, public benefits and more.
This story was originally published February 18, 2025 at 2:32 PM.
