Jail-Based IGNITE Program Found to Reduce Recidivism
by Anthony W. Accurso
A study analyzing the effects of a new jail-based rehabilitation program shows significant reductions in recidivism, and is upending the previous correctional mindset of “nothing works.”
Nearly 600,000 people are incarcerated in jails in the United States on any given day. Most are awaiting court dates, and many are simply unable to afford bail. The vast majority do nothing except pass time, though a small minority have access to GED programs.
This latter fact stems largely from the correctional attitude that rehabilitation and recidivism reduction programs are an ineffective waste of money. This attitude dates back to a 1974 study reaching this conclusion, and it’s persistent in part because it confirms biases trained into law enforcement about prisoners.
These trends were reflected in the Genesee County Jail in Flint, Michigan, where most of the people incarcerated are young, poor, and Black, with extensive criminal records. One jail administrator said in 2019: “We were just kind of functioning… We were sending people to court, sending people to prison, getting people out.”
Following the fallout from the 2020 murder of George Floyd, the jail sought a shift in operations and relations to the community. In September of that year, it launched the “Inmate Growth Naturally and Intentionally Through Education” (IGNITE) program. Jail staff repurposed an unused dayroom and dedicated it to classwork, assigned staff members to the program, installed dedicated Wi-Fi, and purchased 565 tablets for participants. Mt. Morris Consolidated Schools donated 300 Chromebooks and the jail’s GED instructor was reassigned to the program. The jail dedicated two unbroken hours each weekday for classwork, ceasing other jail programs and segregating non-participants in their cells.
Each prisoner was provided an educational assessment and individualized coursework from computer-based programs that ranged from GED attainment to for-credit college courses and certificate vocational programming in food-handling, commercial driving, masonry, and welding. Graduates were able to attend a cap-and-gown ceremony in the jail alongside family and friends. Individuals released from the jail were able to continue their education at Mt. Morris schools, usually at no additional cost.
Program costs were minimal, and were largely “offset by revenue generated from the program tablets, which participants could use in the post-IGNITE period to purchase and access music, games, and movies.”
The results of the programs were impressive, and they were published in The Quarterly Journal of Economics. After adjusting for variables, the researchers noted the program “is estimated to reduce the number of weekly major-misconduct incidents by 0.14 (25%) and to reduce the three-month recidivism by 9 percentage points (24%).” Further, “[e]stimated recidivism effects grow over time—to around a 15-percentage point reduction over one year—and are concentrated among people with high predicted recidivism risk.”
The study authors wrote that, “[c]omparing standardized test scores before and after enrollment, we find that participants gained a full grade level, on average, in both math and reading from low baseline levels.”
The program also saved the county money over time. “In economic terms,” wrote the authors, “we find that one additional month of IGNITE exposure reduces the three-month social cost of crime by at least $2,954 per incarcerated person,” with a “$7,285 per person-month” reduction “[o]ver a year.”
“The low cost and perceptions of broad success have recently led the National Sheriffs Association to begin scaling up programs similar to IGNITE in many jails across the United States,” noted the study. IGNITE “is much more than giving people a free education,” said program administrators. “It’s about giving people hope when they have no hope.”
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