Behind the Walls Talk

06/03/2026

📢 JOB SEEKERS: Opportunities Available Across Robeson, Hoke, Bladen, and Surrounding Counties! 📢

Looking for work, a career change, or a fresh start? NCWorks has released new job openings ranging from healthcare and social services to agriculture, customer service, maintenance, and skilled trades.

Some of the positions currently available include:
✅ Registered Nurse (RN)
✅ Licensed Practical Nurse (LPN)
✅ Certified Nursing Assistant (CNA)
✅ Customer Service Representative
✅ Office Clerk
✅ Habilitation Specialist
✅ Group Home Manager
✅ Agricultural Equipment Operator
✅ Water Distribution Maintenance Worker
✅ Building Maintenance Repairer
✅ Social Worker
✅ Public Health Nurse II
✅ And many more!

Whether you’re entering the workforce, returning home after incarceration, changing careers, or simply seeking better opportunities, there are resources available to help.

💼 Visit NCWorks and local workforce centers for applications, training opportunities, résumé assistance, interview preparation, and job referrals.

📍 Remember: A job can be more than a paycheck—it can be a pathway to stability, purpose, and a new beginning.

❤️🦋

06/03/2026

BOOK IT! Summer of Stories is back for another fun-filled, nostalgic summer of reading adventures and pizza prizes!

Our summer program officially begins TODAY, June 1 and runs through August 31 for children in PreK–6th grade nationwide.

✨ The first official reward claim period opens July 1!

Parents, here are a few important reminders:

📅 Reading days must be marked on the calendar inside the BOOK IT! App. If you miss a day, you’re able to go back up to 7 days.
📖 Children must read at least 15 days within the month, and parents must track those reading days in the app calendar to qualify for their pizza reward.

If you experience any issues, please contact us before the end of the month using the Contact Support page located in the app menu or on our website so we can assist you in time.

Stay tuned all summer long for updates, reading inspiration, activities, and important program information as we continue spreading the joy of reading!

06/03/2026

📚🦖 UNEARTH A STORY – SUMMER READING 2026! 🦕

Looking for something fun, free, and educational for the kids this summer? The Robeson County Public Library is inviting young readers to dig into adventure through this year’s “Unearth a Story” Summer Reading Program!

📅 June 15 – July 24, 2026

Reading opens doors to imagination, knowledge, and opportunity. Whether your child loves dinosaurs, mysteries, history, science, or adventure, there’s a story waiting to be discovered!

📖 Encourage your children, grandchildren, nieces, and nephews to participate and keep their minds growing all summer long.

📍 Register and learn more at:
www.robesoncountylibrary.org/summerreading

❤️📚🦕

Summer Reading Program Days Hours Minutes Seconds A summer 65 million years in the making!Summer is right around the corner and that means its time for our annual Summer Reading programming and reading challenge! This year we invite you all to join us to “Unearth a Story!“ We will be celebrating...

06/02/2026

❤️❤️ Family & Friends ❤️❤️

I have received several messages from incarcerated workers and residents within NCDAC facilities asking about a bill that would increase wages for incarcerated workers and those participating in Correction Enterprises programs.

After reviewing the legislation, the bill most often referenced is Senate Bill 421 (Prison Reform Omnibus). While the bill does contain language related to prison labor, compensation, workforce development, and rehabilitation, it was introduced in March 2025, received its First Reading, and was referred to committee. From what I can find, it has not moved forward since then.

I support fair compensation, workforce training, and meaningful rehabilitation opportunities. However, it is important that we share facts and not rumors that may create false hope or confusion among incarcerated individuals and their families.

If you know of another bill, amendment, policy change, or have updated information that shows movement on inmate wages or Correction Enterprises pay, please share it. I am always willing to learn and correct information when new facts become available.

Let’s continue to educate, verify, and advocate together. Knowledge is power, and accurate information matters.



:::

06/02/2026

🧡 June is Gun Violence Awareness Month. 🧡

While June is also a time to celebrate Black Music Month, Men’s Mental Health Awareness Month, Alzheimer’s & Brain Awareness Month, and Juneteenth, I want to take a moment to specifically acknowledge an issue that continues to impact our own backyard: gun violence.

Here in Robeson County, this isn’t just something we hear about on the evening news. It’s something our families, friends, neighbors, and communities have experienced firsthand.

Robeson County has consistently ranked among the highest crime-rate counties in North Carolina. Lumberton has one of the highest violent crime rates in the state, with residents facing a significantly greater risk of becoming victims of violent crime than the North Carolina average.

In a recent reporting period, Lumberton recorded approximately:
▪️ 10 murders
▪️ 57 robberies
▪️ 239 aggravated assaults
▪️ 14 rapes

Robeson County has also witnessed devastating mass shooting incidents, including the 2025 shooting near Maxton where 13 people were shot and 2 people lost their lives.

According to the North Carolina Department of Public Safety’s Violence Profile, violent crime in Robeson County increased by approximately 2% in the previous year, reminding us that this remains a serious public safety concern.

But behind every statistic is a person.

A son.
A daughter.
A mother.
A father.
A friend.
A neighbor.

Gun violence is not just a number. It leaves empty seats at dinner tables, grieving families, traumatized communities, and children growing up without loved ones.

This month, let’s honor those we’ve lost, support survivors, mentor our youth, address the root causes of violence, and continue building safer communities. Real change happens when communities come together and refuse to accept violence as normal.

Awareness matters.
Prevention matters.
People matter.

🧡

06/02/2026

🧡🖤💚💜🎶

June is a month of awareness, reflection, celebration, and action.

As we move through this month, let’s take time to acknowledge the many causes and communities being recognized:

🧡 Gun Violence Awareness Month – honoring lives lost and advocating for safer communities.

🎶 Black Music Month – celebrating the culture, creativity, and contributions of Black artists whose music has shaped generations and influenced the world.

💚 Men’s Mental Health Awareness Month – encouraging our fathers, sons, brothers, friends, and loved ones to speak openly, seek support, and know that asking for help is a sign of strength, not weakness.

💜 Alzheimer’s & Brain Awareness Month – raising awareness, supporting caregivers, and remembering those affected by memory-related illnesses.

✊🏾 Juneteenth – commemorating June 19, 1865, and celebrating freedom, resilience, culture, and the continued pursuit of justice and equality.

June reminds us that awareness alone is not enough. Awareness should inspire education, compassion, conversations, advocacy, and action.

Let’s honor the past, support one another in the present, and work toward a better future for all.

🦋💛🖤💚

05/29/2026

People keep asking:

What happened to juvenile sentencing reform?

What happened to sentence reduction?

What happened to parole restoration?

What happened to clemency?

What happened to elder release?

What happened to second-look legislation?

What happened to prison labor reform?

What happened to reentry improvements?

And that’s exactly why these conversations continue.

North Carolina leaders acknowledge prison overcrowding, staffing shortages, officer burnout, aging facilities, safety concerns, and the difficulty of recruiting and retaining correctional staff. If all of that is true, then we should be willing to discuss every solution available not just hiring more people.

We also cannot ignore the financial reality. North Carolina’s prison system is under significant budget pressure. The state continues to face rising costs associated with staffing, overtime, healthcare for an aging prison population, facility maintenance, infrastructure repairs, transportation, security, and daily operations. Taxpayers are being asked to invest more money into a system that many agree is already struggling. If we are going to have an honest conversation about public safety, then we must also have an honest conversation about how we spend those resources and whether smart reforms can improve outcomes while reducing long-term costs.

Why is the conversation almost always about increasing staffing, but rarely about reducing the pressure on the system itself?

What about juveniles sentenced to decades in prison?

What about elderly incarcerated individuals who have served decades and no longer pose a threat?

What about earned-time credits, parole opportunities, clemency applications, sentence review mechanisms, and meaningful reentry support?

These are not radical ideas. Many states already use some combination of these tools.

When people ask about parole restoration, sentence reduction, juvenile sentencing reform, elder release, clemency, and reentry programs, they are not simply asking for mercy. They are asking whether North Carolina is willing to explore solutions that could improve public safety, reduce overcrowding, strengthen families, support correctional staff, and relieve some of the financial strain on the system.

Correctional officers deserve safe working conditions, proper staffing, training, and support. Communities deserve safety. Victims deserve accountability.

But accountability and rehabilitation are not opposites.

If we truly believe people can change, then there must be a process that recognizes change.

The question isn’t whether North Carolina needs more officers.

The question is: What is the complete plan?

Because if the answer is simply “hire more staff and build more beds,” then we are treating symptoms instead of addressing root causes.

The conversation shouldn’t be about being tough or soft on crime. It should be about what works.

If we are serious about reducing violence, reducing overcrowding, supporting correctional staff, strengthening families, and creating safer communities, then we must be willing to discuss the entire justice system from sentencing to rehabilitation to reentry.

Feel free to email the Carolina Justice Oak flyers and policy materials to the members of the North Carolina General Assembly who represent your district and start the conversation.

Ask them where they stand on parole restoration, sentence reduction, juvenile sentencing reform, elder release, reentry improvements, and prison labor reform.

Many of these proposals never make it out of committee or advance to a full vote. With the legislature currently in short session, now is the time to ask whether some of these ideas deserve another look.

Respectfully ask your elected officials:

• Do you support second-look legislation?

• Do you support parole opportunities for people who have demonstrated rehabilitation?

• Do you support sentence review for individuals sentenced as juveniles?

• Do you support reentry policies that reduce recidivism and strengthen communities?

• Which of these bills would you be willing to revisit?

The Carolina Justice Oak is not about being soft on crime.

It is about dignity, accountability, rehabilitation, public safety, stronger families, safer communities, responsible use of taxpayer dollars, and creating a justice system that recognizes both responsibility and the possibility of redemption.

Change starts with conversation. Legislators need to hear from the people they represent.

05/18/2026

I don’t care if you’re Republican, Democrat, liberal, conservative, Black, white, rich, poor, religious, or not. This conversation is bigger than politics and bigger than division.

This is about people.
Human beings.
Morality.
Compassion.
Accountability.
Reality.

The prison system affects ALL of us whether people want to acknowledge it or not. Taxpayers fund it. Communities feel it. Families live through it. Staff work in it. Human beings exist inside of it.

Speaking on unsafe conditions, overcrowding, mental health, rehabilitation, elderly care, staffing shortages, or basic humanity does NOT mean “free everybody” or excuse harm. That’s not what’s being said.

What’s being said is:
We should be smart enough and human enough to ask if what we’re doing is actually working.

People are so busy turning everything into Democrat vs Republican, Black vs white, left vs right, that they miss the entire point.

And if you come over here commenting on my page, understand that I can usually tell your agenda by what you choose to say. We can have a respectful interaction, or we may not interact at all depending on the energy and intent behind it.

The last person who flooded my comments with anti-Democrat, anti-liberal memes and race-based rhetoric completely missed the point of the conversation. I’m not interested in performative political battles or feeding division narratives.

I care about people.
Period.

05/18/2026

05/18/2026

People on the outside may think the prison system is “out of sight, out of mind” for everybody… but that’s not true.

The people living through incarceration and the families connected to it are paying attention to EVERYTHING happening inside these facilities.

When funding gets cut or resources get stretched thin, the impact shows up immediately in the daily lives of incarcerated men and women.

One man at Lumberton Correctional said they’re being told certain food items may disappear because of shortages and budget issues things like onions no longer being available and even the once-a-month chicken on the bone potentially being removed. Another person from Scotland Correctional said it shocked him to see hotdogs served twice in one week already. Others are speaking about bologna being used on special diet trays.

Some people may laugh that off, but this is the reality people inside are talking about every single day.

And the news article also touched on something people don’t talk about enough the rising cost of elderly care inside prisons.

As more people age behind bars, the state becomes responsible for expensive medical care, medications, hospital visits, chronic illness treatment, nursing needs, and healthcare staffing. That costs taxpayers millions and millions of dollars.

So the question becomes:
Why are we not being more proactive about rehabilitation, reentry, restorative justice, and realistic second-chance pathways for people who have demonstrated growth, change, accountability, or who no longer pose a threat to society?

And no before people twist words this is NOT saying “free everybody.”
That is not what people are asking for.

People are asking lawmakers to see the BIGGER picture.

The jails and prisons are overcrowding.
Staff shortages are critical.
Facilities are aging.
Food quality is declining.
Healthcare costs are rising.
Correctional officers are overworked.
Families are struggling.
Communities are impacted.

And people also need to understand something else:
Prisons can become dangerous environments very quickly when systems are strained.

Even when I worked as a correctional officer, we were told something that stuck with me:
The residents allow staff to be there because staff are heavily outnumbered at all times.

At any given moment, if tensions rise, staffing drops too low, conditions worsen, or frustration builds, situations can turn dangerous fast for everybody involved.

That is the reality.

So when people dismiss staff shortages like they’re “not a big deal,” they are ignoring how serious this really is. It is dangerous for incarcerated people AND dangerous for staff.

And honestly, sometimes it feels like facilities are being allowed to keep operating under critical conditions because leadership does not want larger problems, unrest, lawsuits, or public attention.

But ignoring pressure inside prisons does not make the pressure disappear.

Yet people continue being warehoused for decades with very little conversation about long-term solutions.

There have been bills introduced that could help address some of these issues through rehabilitation efforts, earned opportunities, reentry pathways, sentence review discussions, elderly and medical release considerations, and workforce investments but many of these conversations continue getting pushed aside while the system keeps expanding and collapsing at the same time.

And if staffing is truly this critical, then why aren’t we aggressively addressing officer pay, working conditions, mental health support, retention, and recruitment instead of continuing to operate in crisis mode?

This isn’t about being “soft on crime.”
This is about being SMART on policy.

Because eventually the public is going to have to face the reality that you cannot keep overcrowding prisons, underfunding resources, overworking staff, aging people inside for decades, cutting corners, and then act shocked when the entire system starts cracking under pressure.

The people inside see it.
The families see it.
The staff see it.

The issue is not that people don’t care.
The issue is that too many people in positions of power only pay attention once conditions become impossible to ignore.

These are human beings.
These are somebody’s sons, daughters, mothers, fathers, brothers, sisters, and friends.

What happens inside prisons does not stay inside prisons.
It affects families, communities, reentry, public safety, and generations of people on the outside too.