By Rachel Crumpler
On April 29, 2024, Kerwin Pittman waited by his phone in eager, nervous anticipation. He didn’t know how long it might take for the first caller to dial the Recidivism Reduction Call Center he had launched that morning.
The hotline — staffed by people who have experienced incarceration and who are also certified community health workers — connects callers to resources across North Carolina to help them with reentering their communities. Hotline operators have more than 800 entries in their database of resources, from housing options to “second chance” employers to mental health professionals, that it can point callers to based on their needs.
Pittman, executive director of the nonprofit Recidivism Reduction Educational Program Services, created the hotline to better connect people with resources.
His own experience leaving prison in 2018 and facing challenges finding resources to get his life on track taught him there was a need for on-demand reentry support — a place someone could call to talk through their challenges and leave more at ease with resources in hand.
And at 9 a.m., he answered his first call — someone who had a brother who’d get out of prison soon. He provided a list of local resources that could help with his transition.
The phone rang back to back all day, Pittman said, and hotline operators answered over 100 calls.
And they haven’t stopped. In the five months since the hotline launched, they’ve answered more than 1,500 calls.
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.
Formerly incarcerated people, family members anticipating a loved one’s release, parole/probation officers, EMS workers and other stakeholders have called the hotline asking for reentry resources.
Pittman knows timely connections to resources are crucial to improving reentry success and lowering recidivism rates in North Carolina.
A “real-time source of information can make or break somebody’s successful reentry,” Pittman said.
An April report by the North Carolina Sentencing and Policy Advisory Commission found a 44 percent re-arrest rate within two years from a sample of 12,889 people released from North Carolina state prisons in fiscal year 2021. That same sample had an 18 percent re-conviction rate and, when adding in those who return to prison for probation or post-release violations, fully 33 percent were back in prison within two years of their release.
“The recidivism rate is so high because [reentry] is hard, and it’s even harder when you lack resources and when you don’t have connection to those resources,” Pittman said. “That’s where we hope to make a difference.”
Responding to a ‘reintegration emergency’
In the same vein of 988, the now universal mental health crisis hotline, Pittman said the Recidivism Reduction Hotline responds to and offers aid to people in different kinds of crises — ones that emerge along the path of transitioning back to the community.
For example, barriers such as employers refusing to hire people with a criminal record, inadequate housing options and lack of health care access can derail someone’s ability to land — and stay — on their feet.
“Some people lack the tools, some people lack the skills, some people lack the know-how,” Pittman said. “So what we want to do is be that voice and that help for these individuals to reintegrate back successfully. I kind of look at it in the same vein as EMS responds to an individual having a physical emergency. We’re responding to individuals who are having a reentry or reintegration emergency.”
Emanuel Snelling from Raleigh spent eight and a half years in prison before his release in 2019. He called the hotline for help finding employment after he lost his job in April.
“They told me, ‘No, Emaunel, you’re not looking for a job. You’re looking for a career, and that’s what we’re going to find for you,’” Snelling said. “And I was like, ‘Wow.’”
Snelling said the hotline operator gave him the name of an employer to call, and he secured a job interview within days. It’s where he now works.
Calling the hotline streamlined the job hunt and also came with a supportive voice, Snelling said.
“This hotline is like holding your hand and taking you straight to the door,” Snelling said.
The Recidivism Reduction Call Center’s number is provided to every incarcerated person in North Carolina prisons. The N.C. Department of Adult Correction added information about the hotline on the 30,000-plus electronic tablets it provides for use by incarcerated people.
Pittman also got the hotline number included on tablets at the county jails in Wake, Durham and Buncombe counties and is working to bring it to other jail populations across the state.
He’s also seeking to get the resource in front of other stakeholders who cross paths with justice-involved people, such as social workers and probation/parole officers.
People’s awareness of the hotline is growing — even beyond North Carolina.
“I had a guy in, I think it was Kansas, who got mad at me because the hotline wasn’t in his state,” Pittman said. “It’s a real need across the country.
“When I see people reaching out from as far as California, it lets me know that we was really doing the work and was really onto something, filling a big void in our state.”
The hotline is funded by grants and individual donations to Recidivism Reduction Educational Program Services, Pittman said. He added that he’s working to secure additional funding that will allow the hotline to hire additional operators and be available on Saturdays.
Part of a statewide goal
The hotline comes at a time when North Carolina is increasingly focused on boosting reentry support for the roughly 18,000 people who leave North Carolina prisons every year — and the thousands more leaving county jails.
Gov. Roy Cooper’s Executive Order No. 303, signed in January, kicked off North Carolina’s concerted effort to bolster support for this population. In August, North Carolina leaders serving on the state’s Joint Reentry Council outlined a strategic plan with steps the state will take by 2030 to reduce obstacles for formerly incarcerated people.
Pittman sits on the Joint Reentry Council, representing the perspective of people who have been incarcerated. He also serves as a member of the N.C. Task Force for Racial Equity in Criminal Justice and the State Reentry Council Collaborative.
Since his release from prison, Pittman’s been actively working to ease the reentry process for people leaving incarceration. Now, with hundreds of people calling the hotline for support, he has a direct window into some of the most pressing reentry needs.
The two biggest ones, he says, are housing and employment. Hotline operators answer multiple calls about those issues every day, he said.
Hotline operators do their best to identify and offer needed resources, but sometimes there’s nothing available in the county the person is calling from. In those cases, Pittman said hotline operators provide options in neighboring counties or share a statewide resource that might be able to help. They never want to leave someone empty-handed.
Identification of these gaps is also informing Pittman’s advocacy work.
“It kind of makes us hit the pavement even harder,” Pittman said.
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