The Collin County Sheriff’s Office is launching a project for its inmates that is unlike any other in the state of Texas.
Sheriff Jim Skinner says the program will make communities safer by giving offenders who re-enter society, often within a few months or years, a second chance decreasing their chance of re-offending.
County jail inmates have long had access to educational programs like GED certification, but I.G.N.I.T.E. is different. The acronym stands for Inmate Growth Naturally and Intentionally through Education.
“I.G.N.I.T.E. is a culture change,” said an enthusiastic Sheriff Chris Swanson of the Genesee County Jail in Michigan. “You don’t need to be in a jumpsuit to realize right now in your head when you did something and someone gave you grace and mercy, and that’s what I.G.N.I.T.E. is.”
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Swanson, who launched the program, joined Collin County Sheriff Jim Skinner and other law enforcement leaders Wednesday to launch the project locally.
The National Sheriff’s Association’s national initiative helps county jails replicate Swanson’s program. It offers in-depth educational opportunities, job and life skills training, job certification and even matches inmates with potential employers. The goal is to reduce violence in jail and recidivism once inmates are released.
As of now, the I.G.N.I.T.E. initiative is offered in only six other county jails in the country, none in the deep South or Southwest, until Wednesday.
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“What if, instead of playing chess and dominoes every day, all day, that time is spent on learning better life skills?” asked Skinner during the ceremony.
While state and federal prison systems often offer advanced educational programs, the programs available in county jails are limited, he said.
“Ninety percent of the people that are in this facility at this very moment are going to be released and go home, so our attitude is, why would we use that to everyone’s advantage and theirs in order to make the community safer?” said Skinner. “If I can work with people who are confined here in the detention center and help teach them life skills to help them be successful when they leave here, they’ll go back to their communities and make good neighbors, good husbands and fathers and mothers and brothers and sisters. That’s going to help make our communities safer.”
The sheriff spoke with NBC 5 in a room used for existing educational instruction that will soon be converted into a barber college as part of I.G.N.I.T.E.
Skinner has been working on launching the program in McKinney for 10 months, after traveling to see its impact in Michigan firsthand.
“I saw it. It was quieter than a library in there with many dozens of inmates doing their work on their tablets,” he recalled. “I took the time to talk to those guys and to visit with them and to understand it was indeed a culture change in that jail and that’s what I want to do here.”
Swanson says the program has decreased violence between inmates and between inmates and jail staff.
The sheriff, known for his no-nonsense, tough-on-crime demeanor, said there is a balance between ensuring rules are followed while doing the right thing for those paying their debt to society.
“Listen, you have to look hard in my jail to find someone who knows how to balance a checkbook and it shouldn’t be that way,” said Skinner. “We should be teaching people skills that when they leave here, they have the confidence and the ability to manage their own resources.”
The program will not be offered to inmates who pose a high-security risk or those accused of severe crimes.
It will also identify inmates based on their skills and interests. Inmate Darius Bradford of Dallas said he spends most of his time reading the Bible.
“Yes, I’m always meditating on God’s word,” he said.
Bradford says he has been in the Collin County Jail for seven months awaiting his fate on a burglary charge. His goal is to take advantage of any cooking or engineering classes that may be offered. His main dream is to go into ministry work when he is released.
“It’ll give us hope. You see, a lot of us in here, we don’t have hope. We lose hope once we walk through these doors. But this program to me feels like it’ll give us hope. It’ll give us the chance to do better,” said Bradford. “Put our past behind us and move for a prosperous future.”
