Crime is a conversation happening in neighborhoods across Mecklenburg County.

People want safer streets, communities, and real solutions that last longer than a headline.

Inside the Mecklenburg County Jail, a different kind of crime prevention effort is quietly taking shape.

One that doesn't start after release, but long before it.

Tonight, "Carolina Impact"'s Chris Clark looks at a program challenging inmates to rethink their future by building something of their own.

- I had $3 to my name, the outfit I was arrested on, no phone, no anything.

- [Chris] When Erin walked out of the Mecklenburg County Detention Center, she wasn't walking into a new life.

She was walking into uncertainty.

- I came into town.

Less than 24 hours later, I was in jail.

I was facing two felonies, two misdemeanors.

My addiction had taken me so deep that I didn't even talk to my family.

- [Chris] For more than 30 years, addiction controlled Erin's life, but inside the jail, she discovered something she didn't expect: opportunity.

- I looked on their kiosk and I saw programs.

I got accepted into the substance abuse pod.

- [Chris] Instead of leaving jail as soon as she could, Erin made a decision that surprised even her attorney.

- My attorney was like, "I can get your bond unsecured and we can get you out today."

And I'm like, "No, I need this.

I wanna stay and finish this program."

- [Chris] She stayed to complete a 42-day recovery program, but finishing the program was only the first step.

For many people leaving jail, the real challenge begins after release.

- Most of our residents want to work, but many of them are not ready to work.

- [Chris] Before someone can rebuild their life, the basics have to come first.

- Mental health services, housing, transportation, identification.

A person can't get employed legally without identification.

- [Chris] That's why the Mecklenburg County Sheriff's Office created the Post-Release Resource Center, a place where newly released individuals can begin rebuilding their foundation.

- It bridges the gap between incarceration and independence.

- [Chris] The center operates through partnerships with local agencies and a $40,000 grant from Lowe's.

- Workforce development is public safety.

Rehabilitation is public safety.

- Sheriff Gary McFadden says many of these programs were inspired by something he saw overseas.

- I went to Germany and Norway to study prison system.

Programs in those prisons was everything.

It was unusual the way that they had the programs.

People were free to move around.

People were working in kitchens, you know, libraries.

And so then I said, "Why can't we do this in the US?"

- [Chris] The goal was to rethink what incarceration could accomplish.

- People think that incarceration is for punishment, which it is at some point, but we are not in the business of punishment.

We are in the business of rehabilitation.

- [Chris] That philosophy also led to another program inside the jail itself, one focused on entrepreneurship.

- There's a whole bunch of guys in here that just wanna start their business.

Most of them was running things that wasn't legal at the time.

So they definitely were business owners, but they just didn't know how to properly do it.

- [Chris] The program is called The Next Great 50.

Participants develop business ideas, learn how to register an LLC, and prepare to launch companies once they return to the community.

At roughly $50,000 a year, the program serves about 50 detention center residents, and it's a fraction of the $73,000 it costs to house just one person in jail annually.

Some of those businesses are already up and running.

Mario Young turned a lifelong passion into a photography company.

- It's been kind of growing since my youth.

Always behind a camera somewhere, taking a picture or watching someone take a picture.

So I always been in the arena of just photography in general.

- [Chris] For him, the program turned an idea into something legitimate.

- If it wasn't for The Next Great 50, I'll probably be somewhere trying to pay someone for the information and not knowing if I'm getting scammed or being used or misused.

With The Next Great 50, I've gotten the opportunities to work with the universities here in Charlotte.

I've gotten the opportunities to work with banks such as TD Bank.

- [Chris] For the people going through these programs, success rarely happens overnight, and the road isn't always easy.

- When they're in recovery, they tend to give up when life keeps lifeing.

They want everybody to be like, "Oh, you're so wonderful," and it's not like that.

- [Chris] Recovery isn't about perfection.

It's about learning how to keep going, even when life gets hard.

- You have to make them greater by concentrating on gratitude.

The other day I looked out the window and I'm like, "I don't have to look for drugs."

- [Chris] Moments like that, she says, remind her just how far she's come.

Nationwide, about 44% of people released from jail return within a year.

In Mecklenburg County, that number is closer to 29%.

And officials say programs focused on recovery, job training, and entrepreneurship are helping drive that difference.

- I don't like the stigma of painting pictures that only a couple of us that come home can do it.

All of us can do it.

- [Chris] For Josh, the goal is bigger than any single success story.

It's proving that people given opportunity and support can rewrite the direction of their lives.

- How do you want that person to return?

Because they're going to return.

Now, do you want to not help them and then get the same result to where your tax dollars are still gonna go to housing them?

- How would you want me to prepare your neighbor?

Maybe not your neighbor, maybe your daughter's neighbor, maybe your son's neighbor, maybe your mother's neighbor.

But this person will be someone's neighbor.

- [Chris] Sheriff McFadden says he hopes the programs continue long after he is gone.

For Erin, the programs inside the jail and the support she found after release helped change the direction of her life.

What once felt like the end of her story became a brand new beginning.

- I wouldn't be as successful as I am.

I have hope now.

- [Chris] Programs like these don't erase the past, but they can change what comes next.

And in Mecklenburg County, the goal is simple: turn time served into second chances and former inmates into neighbors ready to succeed.

For "Carolina Impact," I'm Chris Clark.