Behind the Walls Talk

09/03/2026

BEHIND THE WALLS TALK | SCOTLAND CORRECTIONAL INSTITUTION

Yesterday, I was informed by a resident that Trevor Wingard, NCDAC’s new Chief Deputy Secretary of Institutions and Correction Enterprises, visited Scotland Correctional Institution.

What makes this visit especially concerning is that when NCDAC announced Mr. Wingard’s appointment, the department specifically highlighted his experience with reducing staff vacancies and stated that he would help address staffing shortages and other challenges within North Carolina’s correctional system.

Yet according to the resident, during his visit to Scotland, Mr. Wingard toured with the warden and administration but did not enter the common or living areas where residents spend their time and did not speak directly with residents.

That raises an important question:

If you were brought into this position to help address staffing shortages and other challenges, how can you fully understand those challenges without speaking to the people most affected by them?

Staffing shortages are not just numbers on a vacancy report. They affect lockdowns, recreation, medical care, programming, safety, sanitation, staff burnout, and the everyday living conditions of residents.

Scotland has been dealing with concerns in many of these areas for far too long.

Walking through with administration gives you one perspective.

Go into the living areas. Speak privately with residents. Speak with frontline staff. Ask what staffing shortages actually look like day to day.

Mr. Wingard, you were brought in to help address these problems. Scotland is one of the places where those conversations need to happen.

You cannot fix what you are unwilling to fully see.

— Behind the Walls Talk

09/02/2026

💜🩵 MENTAL HEALTH MATTERS. YOU MATTER. 🩵💜

September is Su***de Prevention Awareness Month, but checking on the people we love should happen all year long. Sometimes the strongest person in the room is carrying something nobody can see.

Ask twice. Listen without judgment. Be kind. Remind somebody that their life has value. 💛

📞 Call or text 988 — Su***de & Crisis Lifeline, available 24/7.
📱 Text HOME to 741741 — Crisis Text Line, free and confidential 24/7.
🚨 If someone is in immediate danger or experiencing a medical emergency, call 911.

You are not alone. Your story isn’t over. There is hope. 🦋

***dePrevention

09/01/2026

💜 BEHIND THE WALLS TALK | REENTRY RESOURCE 💜

Coming home from incarceration already comes with enough challenges. Healthcare should not be another barrier.

I’m sharing the GIFT Program through Parks Insurance Agency for individuals preparing to return home from jail or prison and those already transitioning back into the community.

They can help individuals explore affordable health insurance options, including possible $0 monthly premium plans for those who qualify, along with access to:

🩺 Medical care
💊 Prescription coverage
🧠 Mental health services
🤝 Substance abuse treatment resources
👨‍👩‍👧 Family coverage options
🏡 Reentry support and guidance

📣 And this is NOT just for North Carolina or South Carolina. If you or someone you know is reentering society in another state, please still reach out and ask what coverage options are available.

Incarceration and release can also affect health insurance enrollment eligibility, so getting information before or soon after release can help prevent gaps in care.

🔗 Learn more: parksinsured.com/gift/
📞 866-932-7200

💜 And when you reach out, be sure to tell them Frankie Faulk with Behind the Walls Talk sent you!

Successful reentry is about more than coming home. It’s about having access to healthcare, stability, resources, and support once you get there.

BE INFORMED. BE EMPOWERED. BE THE CHANGE.
💜 Behind the Walls Talk
Real Voices. Real Stories. Real Change.

08/31/2026

BEHIND THE WALLS TALK | SCOTLAND CORRECTIONAL INSTITUTION

At this point, we have to ask some uncomfortable questions.

No disrespect to Representative Garland Pierce. I recognize that he has been involved with reentry for years, has visited Scotland Correctional Institution, and has supported criminal-justice legislation.

But supporting bills and touring prisons cannot be the end of the conversation.

Scotland Correctional has been raising red flags for YEARS.

We continue hearing concerns about violence, staffing shortages, lockdowns, healthcare, sanitation, alleged mold, hostile conditions, and treatment. There have been repeated violent incidents, serious injuries, and constant concerns coming from families and people living inside.

And this is the part we cannot keep dancing around:

People are being stabbed. People are being seriously injured. People are dying behind these walls.

So my question is simple:

What is the purpose of an elected official visiting a prison if the visit does not result in questions, documented findings, follow-up, and accountability?

If you walk through Scotland and do not see a problem, then families and residents deserve to know what areas you were shown.

If you did see problems, we deserve to know what you did about them.

If repeated violence, deaths, lockdowns, staffing concerns, sanitation complaints, and reports of inhumane conditions are not enough to trigger serious oversight, what will be?

This is not about attacking Garland Pierce. It is not about Democrat versus Republican. This is about accountability and human life.

A tour is not reform.
A photo is not oversight.
A conversation is not a corrective action plan.

The staff working inside deserve a safe workplace. The people incarcerated there are still human beings and deserve safe and humane conditions. Their families deserve answers.

How many more families have to get that phone call before somebody treats this like the crisis it is?

At some point, we have to stop saying, “We visited. We talked. We are aware.”

The question now is:

WHAT CHANGED AFTER THE VISIT?

— Behind the Walls Talk

08/30/2026

🖤❤️💚 BLACK AUGUST — DAY 30 | RESISTANCE WAS NEVER ABSENT

Today we honor two powerful pieces of Black history.

August 30, 1948, Chairman Fred Hampton was born. Under FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover, COINTELPRO targeted the Black Panther Party and other Black liberation organizations. Hampton was only 21 years old when he was killed during a predawn police raid in 1969 after an FBI informant infiltrated the Chicago Panthers and provided information about him.

Fred Hampton wasn’t just talking revolution. He was organizing people, building coalitions, feeding children, educating communities, and challenging inequality.

“If you walk through life and don’t help anybody, you haven’t had much of a life.” — Fred Hampton

And then we go back to August 30, 1800. Gabriel, an enslaved Black blacksmith in Virginia, helped organize a major planned rebellion against slavery. Severe weather disrupted the plan, authorities were warned, and Gabriel was eventually captured and executed.

This is the history I wish we were taught more of in school.

Sometimes the way slavery is presented can leave the impression that enslaved people were simply passive, accepting their circumstances and waiting for freedom to come. That is not the whole story.

Enslaved people escaped. They organized. They resisted. They planned rebellions. They protected their culture. They fought for freedom in countless ways.

Gabriel was one of them. Nat Turner was one of them. Denmark Vesey was one of them. And there were many more whose names we were never taught.

From Gabriel in 1800 to Fred Hampton generations later, Black people continued organizing against systems they believed denied our communities freedom, dignity, opportunity, and power.

That is one reason I observe Black August: to remember what was left out, learn the history for myself, and make sure these stories continue to be told.

Salute to Chairman Fred Hampton on his born day.
Remember Gabriel and the planned rebellion of August 30, 1800.

They resisted. They organized. They built. We should know their names.

08/30/2026

Two young men. Two release dates. And now everything has changed.

I’ve been sitting with this story because there is a much bigger conversation here than simply saying, “an inmate killed another inmate.”

Christian Bridges had only been admitted into NCDAC custody on April 27, 2026. He was serving a sentence of 10 years, 8 months and had a projected release date of January 22, 2031.

He was supposed to eventually come home.

Instead, just four months after entering prison, Christian is dead.

ABC11 reports that Christian died after an assault Friday night at Harnett Correctional Institution. Facility first responders and EMS attempted to treat him, but he died while being transported to the hospital. Isaiah McKoy has now been charged with first-degree murder.

And then there is Isaiah.

According to his incarceration record, Isaiah was already serving a sentence with a projected release date of October 27, 2036.

That means Isaiah had a date too.

He had years left to serve, absolutely, but there was still a day on the calendar when he was expected to walk back through those gates and return to society.

Now he is charged with first-degree murder.

And that distinction matters: charged does not mean convicted. But if an adult is ultimately convicted of first-degree murder in North Carolina, it is a Class A felony punishable by life imprisonment without parole or, in qualifying cases, death.

So potentially, one young man who was supposed to come home in 2031 is gone forever, and another young man who was supposed to come home in 2036 may have changed the entire course of the rest of his life.

This is why I keep talking about what happens behind the walls.

Accountability for violence matters. Christian’s death matters. But so do questions about staffing, supervision, mental-health treatment, medical response, conflict intervention and what conditions are allowing situations inside these facilities to escalate to the point where lives are being lost.

I have received messages from people inside raising concerns about nursing coverage and mental-health care. I cannot independently verify every allegation being sent to me, so I will not present those claims as established facts. But when people inside repeatedly raise the same concerns, they deserve to be investigated, not dismissed.

Prison was the sentence.

Death was not Christian’s sentence.

And another sentence potentially becoming life without parole should make us ask what happened before things ever reached this point.

There are now families on both sides who will carry the consequences of what happened inside Harnett Correctional Institution.

This is exactly why these conversations matter.

Behind the Walls Talk 🕊️

08/27/2026

08/27/2026

Be informed before you vote! The official Judicial Voter Guide for the 2026 General Election is now available on the State Board’s website. Explore candidate profiles for the NC Supreme Court and NC Court of Appeals so you can make confident, informed choices at the polls.

Get the guide here: tinyurl.com/2md77su4

08/27/2026

BLACK AUGUST DAY 27 ✊🏾🖤❤️💚
VOICES FROM BEHIND THE WALLS

Today, we center the voice of Dadi Kenyatta McNair, writing from Scotland Correctional Institution.

Dadi does not ask anyone to erase the harm caused by his past. He entered prison at 28 years old and has now spent twenty years working to become a different man through accountability, education, counseling, restorative justice, ministry, leadership, and service.

During his incarceration, he earned a Bachelor of Arts in Pastoral Ministry with an emphasis in counseling and completed training in trauma healing, restorative justice, Thinking for a Change, and father accountability. Today, he serves as a Field Minister, mentoring and supporting other men inside.

His letter asks an important question:

When we look at someone who has spent decades incarcerated, do we only ask what they did, or do we also ask who they have become?

Dadi writes about the need for meaningful rehabilitation, adequate programming, education, peer mentorship, and a real process for reviewing long sentences when a person has demonstrated extraordinary change.

His message is not that accountability should disappear. His message is that accountability and transformation can exist together.

One of the most powerful lines in his letter says:

“Rehabilitation is not the opposite of public safety. Done correctly, rehabilitation is public safety.”

He also writes:

“I once became part of the problem. Today, I am trying to become part of the solution. I once caused harm. Today, I work to prevent harm.”

That is why Voices From Behind the Walls matters.

We cannot have meaningful conversations about prison reform, rehabilitation, reentry, sentencing, or public safety while excluding the people who live these policies every single day.

Dadi closes his letter with a reminder lawmakers and all of us should hear.

Behind every policy is a human being, and behind these walls are voices worth hearing.

Day 27 of Black August

Listen to the voices behind the walls.

Accountability matters.
Rehabilitation matters.
Transformation matters.
Second chances matter.

08/26/2026