In this powerful episode, Sheriff Garry McFadden sits down with a Mecklenburg County resident currently incarcerated who opens up about his first experience behind bars and the emotional toll of being separated from his mother and children for more than three years. Through participation in MCSO’s mental health programs, he’s learned to recognize and manage his struggles with anxiety, PTSD, and depression.

Sheriff McFadden reflects on the conversation and stresses the critical need to address mental health, both inside detention centers and throughout the community, following the death of Iryna Zarutska on Charlotte’s light rail in August.