In a historic purchase, the former Wayne Correctional Center in Goldsboro, which shut down in 2013, was bought by a nonprofit founded by a formerly incarcerated man, WITN reports.
Kerwin Pittman, the founder and executive director of the Recidivism Reduction Education Program Services (RREPS), once walked the halls of prison as an inmate.
Now, he owns his own prison and is planning on turning it into a place of freedom, rather than confinement.
“For me to be a beacon of light in somebody’s life when they’re in a dark place, I know how it feels,” Pittman said. “I remember when I was in that dark place of having to transition and not knowing what the possibility of my life could become, so to be able to guide somebody into that next step is extremely important, and I’m grateful to be able to do it.”
Pittman spent 11 and a half years inside the system of a state correctional facility and is now planning to use that experience to help others.
Through his nonprofit, RREPS, he purchased the former Wayne Correctional Center and is working to transform it into a reentry housing and workforce campus: a place people can call home while they transition back into society.
“I love to give people the opportunity to have a better life,” Pittman said.
He said this is the first time a formerly incarcerated person in the U.S. has purchased a prison and led a nonprofit to repurpose it.
Retired correctional officer Mario Davis, who met Pittman while he was still incarcerated and worked in the system for 20 years, says the new campus is game-changing for those looking for a fresh start.
“Normally, people will go to a halfway house or a reentry house, and those individuals will have to go outside for services, but what he’s done here is bringing formerly incarcerated people in, so they don’t have to go out to get services,” Davis said.
The campus will provide transitional residency, workforce development and job placement, educational opportunities, and multiple other programs for justice-impacted individuals.
Pittman says the goal is to open the new campus in the next two years.
RREPS purchased the prison for just under $1 million, made possible through donations, grants, and philanthropic support.
More information on the nonprofit can be found here.
Copyright 2026 WITN. All rights reserved.