Igniting a new beginning
CCSO program offers educational opportunities, certifications to inmates
By Sonia Duggan
One year ago, Collin County Sheriff Jim Skinner announced plans to reduce recidivism rates among inmates by offering a program where they can learn better life skills, improve their education and learn a trade.
“Too often, we see generations of a family stuck in that vicious cycle of incarceration, release and recidivism,” Skinner said at the kickoff meeting held at the Collin County Detention Center in May 2023.
The sheriff pledged his commitment to adopt a program called IGNITE, or Inmate Growth Naturally and Intentionally Through Education, which has been implemented in other states and has proven successful in educating inmates before being released from county jails.
Skinner spoke of how he first learned about the program and its success in terms of reducing conflicts and improving re-entry opportunities from its founder, Sheriff Chris Swanson, at a National Sheriffs’ Association (NSA) convention in July 2022.
At Collin County’s IGNITE launch, Swanson spoke about how he made the decision to turn the whole Genesee County Jail in Michigan from incarceration to education in 2020 following the murder of George Floyd and the riots.
“Inmates would no longer spend the day playing chess or checkers or listening to music,” he said. “We’re going to go to school five days a week and we’re going to build on a meritocracy. And so, when they do their work, they get rewarded with soda, chips, all the way up to a commencement and they get to break the family bonds of incarceration, and they start a new family tree.”
After hearing Swanson’s speech at the convention, Skinner said he flew to Michigan to attend one of the IGNITE graduations. While there, Skinner asked Swanson to take him “up to the pods” so he could sit down and talk to the inmates.
“I couldn’t believe the difference,” he said, after seeing Swanson’s program participants compared to what he sees at the Collin County Jail. “What I instantly saw was hope,” he added. “And I saw people that were accepting responsibility for the things that they had done, and it was it was pretty amazing.”
“Statistics tell us that about 90% of the folks that are in this jail today are at some point going to be released and go home,” Skinner added. “And when they do go home, they’re going to end up being someone’s neighbor.”
The sheriff said if his department can teach and give inmates better tools to be better citizens, he thinks that they have an obligation to do so, adding that personally, he is “going to opt for the better neighbor.”
With the IGNITE program, Skinner said, “the inmates must do the work themselves, but we have to show them the path.”
One year later
In the year since the announcement, Skinner and his team have implemented the program, and last month the detention center held its second graduation for male and female inmates.
Leading the charge is Inmate Program Coordinator Olivia Penson, an eight-year veteran of the agency, who was “hand-picked” for the position. For Penson, building the program from the ground up involves working inside and outside the facility with the community to collaborate and partner to bring in the skills “that we know are going to be beneficial for the population.”
“We were able to partner with Grayson College and we got Life Skills as a class to come in,” she said. “And so, that hits on a variety of different skill sets, whether it be resume writing, communications, interview skills and much more.”
Penson said they are working with a community partner to have a barber shop within the detention facility.
“We are now a licensed barber school,” she said. “We are one of the first ones here down south.”
Aside from the barber school, Penson said they now have a new meal/food service contract with Trinity Service Group, and they plan to start a “culinary type class” for those inmates that are already working in the kitchen so that they can potentially get some form of a certification.
Penson is also communicating with Collin College “to potentially work on getting a grant together” so that they can bring continuing education classes into the facility as well.
“The classes will benefit those that have finished high school so they can move forward with office type certifications or project management and construction,” she said, “because a lot of them are probably going to be able to get into something like that a little bit quicker than maybe a Fortune 500 company.”
Once community partners are found, Penson said she must vet them through conversations, demonstrations of what they could potentially bring into the facility, how they’re going to service equipment if it breaks, ventilation, space for equipment and much more.
“I have so many guidelines when it comes to jail standards, and what can and can’t come into the facility,” she said. “Some programs like the barber and culinary programs will have strict requirements regarding which inmates can participate.”
Opportunities for all
Most classes offered will be short term, said Penson, since the Collin County Detention Center is a “pre-trial” facility. The length of stay varies but could be up to 180 days or more as inmates await their trial dates.
At the jail, the program is offered to everyone, said Penson, emphasizing that they “do not qualify them” based on the charge.
“I am not here to judge what you’re here for,” she said. “It’s ‘are you wanting to participate in programs?’”
Through a jail request system, inmates can communicate to various departments within the detention facility, said Penson.
“We have a list of everything that we do currently offer,” she said. “And if they’re interested, they send a request through to programs, which is my department. From there, we plug them into the respective classes that they’ve asked to get into. If some of the classes are waitlisted, we put them on the waitlist. And once we get to their name, we get them straight into the class.”
There’s no application process, but with over 1,100 people in the jail, Penson said only interested inmates need apply. The jail also offers programs like Anger Management, Alcoholics Anonymous and Narcotics Anonymous.
“The way we’ve structured the department, we try not to limit anyone because everyone needs some form of help,” she said. “You just have to ask for it.”
In October 2023, the first class of individuals — six males and seven females — graduated from the IGNITE program. In April 2024, nine females and 10 males graduated. Penson said she wants to increase the size of future classes each time.
As in a traditional graduation, Penson said graduates have caps and gowns, they select one male and one female valedictorian and salutatorian, and class pictures and individual pictures are taken “just like you do in a yearbook.”
“We try to make it a big deal,” she said. “And after the first one, it was very emotional because a few of them came up to me after graduation and stated that they had never put a cap and gown on before. So, to even get the chance to do it, even under the circumstances, they were very appreciative for it.”
With successful programs already launched in Michigan and North Carolina, the National Sheriffs’ Association has adopted the IGNITE program as a national initiative throughout the country. To date, there are 12 participants in 10 states; Idaho, Minnesota, New York, North Carolina, North Dakota, Virginia, Ohio, South Dakota, Texas and Utah, who have become pioneers in igniting the change.
For more information about partnering with the CCSO or volunteering, contact Olivia Penson at [email protected] or call 972-547-5317.