Jacqueline Smith and LuKesha Wright are kept quite busy with their daily duties as social workers at the North Carolina Correctional Institution for Women and Johnston Correctional Institution, respectively. Add to that the daily stressors of life and you’d think they wouldn’t have enough hours for another time-consuming activity.
Both women are now pursuing master’s degrees in social work, both in-person and online. Wright is currently in her first year at Fayetteville State University, while Smith will begin this summer at North Carolina State University.
Topics Related to Rehabilitation and Reentry
The North Carolina Joint Reentry Council will hold its next meeting Thursday March 27, in Raleigh.
Joint Reentry Council Meeting
Wake Tech Community College Beltline Education Center
3200 Bush Street, Raleigh, NC 27609
March 27, 2025
10 a.m.
The Joint Reentry Council works to coordinate efforts to improve rehabilitation and reentry for people returning to their communities after serving a sentence in prison or jail.
Agenda
Prison volunteer and Catholic deacon Michael Vandiver was recognized with Papal honors in front of Interim Director of Chaplaincy Services Sarah Jobe (right), family and fellow parishioners.
WHAT: Quarterly meeting of the State Reentry Council Collaborative (SRCC). The SRCC was established by the North Carolina General Assembly and Gov. Roy Cooper in 2017 and is managed by the North Carolina Department of Adult Correction. The SRCC is made up of representatives from across state and local government whose agency responsibilities intersect with the incarceration or reentry process for people in North Carolina.
On Jan. 30, the NC Department of Adult Correction Division of Rehabilitation and Reentry hosted its first reentry simulation exclusively for women at the North Carolina Correctional Institution for Women.
WHAT: Monthly meeting of the North Carolina Joint Reentry Council to coordinate efforts in improving rehabilitation and reentry of offenders returning to their communities after incarceration.
WHEN: Thursday, Jan. 23, 11 a.m. – 1 p.m.
WHERE: Greg Poole, Jr. All Faiths Chapel (Dorothea Dix Park), 1030 Richardson Drive, Raleigh, NC 27603.
WHO: Council members, honored guests, speakers and a chance for public comment
AGENDA
This post was originally published on the Education Commission of the States from Dr. Brooke Wheeler, NCDAC superintendent of education. Dr. Wheeler would like to thank Ziev Dalsheim-Kahane, criminal justice and public safety policy advisor for Gov. Roy Cooper, for support on this post.
Seven offenders from Catawba Correctional Center are learning to build furniture and rebuild their lives. They are the first cohort of offender-students training in the furniture craft through a partnership between the N.C. Department of Adult Correction and Catawba Valley Community College.
The monthly meeting of the N.C. Joint Reentry Council took place Nov. 21 at the NCDAC Office of Staff Development and Training in Apex. Offender rehabilitation and reentry stakeholders received updates from NCDAC Chief Deputy Secretary of Rehabilitative and Correctional Services Maggie Brewer and Deputy Secretary of Rehabilitation and Reentry George Pettigrew, as well as presentations from two reentry stakeholders.
WHAT: Monthly meeting of the North Carolina Joint Reentry Council to coordinate efforts in improving rehabilitation and reentry of offenders returning to their communities after incarceration.
WHEN: Thursday, Nov. 21, 10 a.m. – Noon
WHERE: NCDAC Office of Staff Development and Training, 2211 Schieffelin Road, Apex, NC 27502.
WHO: Council members, honored guests, speakers and a chance for public comment