Former inmate buys Goldsboro prison for reentry campus

Kerwin Pittman Purchases Former Prison in Goldsboro

Kerwin Pittman, a social justice activist, has bought the former Wayne County Correctional Center in Goldsboro. He is the first formerly incarcerated person in U.S. history to purchase a prison.

Pittman served 11½ years in prison for conspiracy to commit murder. He was incarcerated from 2007 to 2018.

After his release, he founded and became the executive director of the Recidivism Reduction Educational Program Services Inc. (RREPS).

Pittman plans to turn the property into a reentry and workforce campus for people recently released from jail or prison. It will be named Recidivism Reduction Campus.

The campus will offer transitional housing, mental health support, workforce training, and necessary life skills.

“This effort is not about continuing incarceration,” Pittman said. “It is a blueprint for transformation, led by those who have lived it. It represents a powerful redefinition of justice in America, from incarceration to ownership, from punishment to purpose.”

The Wayne Correctional Center opened in 1979 and closed in 2013. It has been vacant since then.

According to the North Carolina Department of Adult Correction, the purchase price was $275,000. The sale was approved at the November 2025 Council of State meeting.

The campus is mostly in a designated flood plain near the Neuse River. This area has a history of flooding during major hurricanes. The North Carolina Department of Adult Correction stated that this is why the purchase price was low.

A timeline for construction of the campus has not been provided yet.

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