Crime & Public Safety Bay Minette
Baldwin County Jail Starts IGNITE Program to Prepare Inmates for Release With Classes and Job Training
Sheriff Anthony Lowery says IGNITE will combine existing GED, recovery and job-training efforts at the Baldwin County Jail into one program aimed at helping inmates succeed after release.
BAY MINETTE, Ala. — The Baldwin County Jail has started a program called IGNITE that is intended to give inmates education, job skills and personal development before they return to the community, Sheriff Anthony Lowery said.
What IGNITE offers
IGNITE stands for Inmate Growth Naturally and Intentionally Through Education. It is a national initiative that gives inmates access to education, job training and other resources they may need after release.
The National Sheriffs’ Association describes IGNITE as a national initiative that helps jails replicate a program from the Genesee County, Mich., Sheriff’s Office, which offers comprehensive education, job certification and post-incarceration work opportunities and assistance. Other sheriffs’ offices around the country have adopted it.
The Baldwin County Jail already offers GED classes, Bible studies, recovery groups and job training. Lowery said IGNITE will bring those efforts together under a single program.
Sheriff: a chance for young inmates and a boost for staff
Lowery said the program matters particularly for younger people in jail.
“Unfortunately across the country, younger people in jail are one of the things that are prominent right now,” Lowery said. “To give them a chance is huge and a morale builder for our corrections officers. They’re doing more than watching somebody in a cell. They train them and teach them so it rewards us as well.”
Why release planning matters
Lowery said nearly 90 percent of people in the Baldwin County Jail will eventually return to the community. That figure is the basis of the program’s goal: for inmates to leave with education, job skills and a path forward so they do not end up back in jail.
The sheriff’s office has not announced, in the information available to South AL News, how many inmates can take part, when classes meet or how participants are chosen. South AL News will update this report if the sheriff’s office releases those details.
