RAPID CITY — A new education program for jail inmates in Pennington County aims to break the cycle of repeated incarceration among people who are addicted, have mental health challenges or lack the skills to function in society.

Pennington County Sheriff Brian Mueller recently announced the coming launch of the IGNITE program, which will make South Dakota the latest state to implement the effort.

It requires a relatively small public investment and relies largely on strong community support to create education programs to help former inmates gain confidence, learn new skills, get a job, find stability and stay out of jail, he said.

“We’re exploring to see what type of out-of-the-box solutions we can bring to help the people that are in our jails, and the homeless people in our community, change the trajectory of their lives,” Mueller said.

In a nutshell, IGNITE uses motivational techniques to encourage inmates to sign up for education, counseling and job training run by a paid coordinator but provided in person or virtually by educators and experts within the local community.

IGNITE, which stands for Inmate Growth Naturally and Intentionally Through Education, originated in 2020 in Genesee County, Michigan. It allows for flexibility in what training, coursework or skills training are offered to inmates. 

The program adds new rehabilitation and reform elements to adult jail populations, which have often fallen behind juvenile jails in regard to educational program funding and options. 

In Genesee County, inmates get two hours of educational programming each day. As of August 2022, the program had 15 graduation ceremonies, 2,250 inmate participants and a total of 190,000 teaching hours provided.

At a graduation ceremony in June 2022, former jail inmate Charvel Sims, 56, spoke about how he had been in jail 33 times and in prison five times since 1997.

“Nine months ago, I was sitting in here hopeless,” Sims said. “I had nothing out there to go back to.” 

After taking classes in jail in 2021 and 2022, he entered a bricklayer apprenticeship program and landed a job paying $20 an hour plus full union benefits.

In addition to promoting self-confidence and self-worth in inmates, the training in the trades and other high-demand skills have helped reduce the labor shortage that plagues South Dakota and many other states. 

Officials from other states also report that IGNITE reduces violence in jails, raises morale among inmates and officers and has lowered recidivism rates. 

Jails in eight states are using the program. Pennington County will be the first to launch IGNITE in South Dakota. 

“This is truly a partnership of our community, to come together and talk to what basic skills we can give to our inmate and homeless population to improve their trajectory in life," Mueller said.

The program will likely include drug and alcohol counseling and educational programming through the Rapid City school system and Western Dakota Technical College. 

The anticipated costs, the largest piece being the coordinator’s annual salary of $60,000 to $70,000, will be funded through use of open sheriff’s office positions that are already budgeted.

Minnehaha County Sheriff Mike Milstead said he isn’t sure if IGNITE would be a good fit in Minnehaha County now because of the nature of the current jail population and existing pre-trial intervention and assistance programs to aid inmates upon re-entry to society.

Most inmates serve a short time behind bars and spend more time being monitored outside the jail, Milstead said.

In an effort to provide low-risk defendants a better chance to maintain stability in their jobs, homes and families, judges have become more willing to provide pre-trial release to low-risk offenders, he said. 

To further reduce the jail population and costs, Minnehaha County has implemented several high-tech monitoring and testing programs to keep track of pre-trial or low-level offenders without keeping them in jail. Those include ankle monitors and a 24/7 drug and alcohol testing program that requires twice-daily testing in most cases.

As a result, the jail typically has about 500 inmates, about 80% of whom are on pre-trial status, so only a small portion of the roughly 20,000 people who are booked on criminal charges each year spend any significant time locked up, Milstead said.

The sheriff’s office has a voluntary intensive case management program called Alliance in which the jail partners with the county human services department to provide pre-release services to help inmates land on their feet upon release.

The program offers inmates access to a range of existing community services that can provide them with food, clothing, housing, identification documents, transportation, job assistance or post-release case management. Inmates also can be directed to post-release alcohol and drug treatment or mental health services, Milstead said.

Sheriff Chris Hilton of Sandusky County, Ohio, implemented IGNITE earlier this year and said he saw “immediate success.”

Inmates must first take courses in addiction and mental health before venturing to a wide range of IGNITE programming options that include literacy, financial literacy, music education, and training in the ironwork, electrical and carpenter trades that is provided by local union leaders looking for workers. 

“What do inmates in a jail have the most of? Time,” he said. “They have lots and lots of time. And if that time isn’t used effectively, you’re going to have problems.”

Hughes County Sheriff Patrick Callahan said he’s intrigued by any effort to engage in adult inmate training. 

Adult inmates aren’t provided education or job training in the Hughes County Jail in Pierre, which has 164 beds and houses roughly 125 to 130 inmates a day, according to county records.

“I’d call it innovative and exciting, and we’re monitoring it very closely,” Callahan said. “I could see this developing into something that others can use.”

— This article was produced by South Dakota News Watch, a non-profit journalism organization located online at sdnewswatch.org.