GENESEE CO., Mich. (WNEM) – Proposed federal funding could expand the Genesee County Jail’s IGNITE program.
U.S. Sen. Gary Peters said there’s a big need for programs to help make sure inmates don’t end up in jail again after their release, and what’s being done in Genesee County is a prime example of how to fill that need.
“If you look just at dollars and cents, that’s a good thing, but you also have to look at the human element too, which is difficult to put a price on. When you’re able to transform people’s lives and make them citizens going back into the community, and being completely different people than they were when they came in, I don’t know how you put a dollar figure on that, but it’s a big one,” Peters said.
Two years after he secured $768,000 in federal funding to help launch IGNITE, Peters is seeing the fruits of the investment with his own eyes.
“I’ve heard a lot about what happens here, but it’s one thing to hear about it; it’s another thing to come and see it first-hand,” he said.
Peters is looking to help expand IGNITE with $500,000 from the 2025 Commerce, Justice, Science, and Related Agencies Appropriations Act.
“It’s been just a revolving door: they commit a crime, go out, do it again, come back. We’ve got to end that cycle. Somehow, you’ve got to sever that. But in order to do that, it takes real innovative initiative, and that’s what I saw here,” the senator said.
According to the Genesee County Sheriff’s Office, if passed into law, the money would be used to upgrade the jail’s facilities for culinary and computing education classes.
They’re courses that IGNITE graduate Ilona Curry said changed her life.
“Without IGNITE, I could’ve been tossed into the category of previously incarcerated felon with no hope, and I was confident that’s where I was going to be. I felt that every single day until IGNITE because IGNITE gave me hope,” she said.
Curry is now a supervisor in the jail’s kitchen and a teacher for other inmates going through the program.
With this new investment, both Peters and Genesee County Sheriff Chris Swanson are hoping for more success stories sparked through IGNITE.
“Our goal is to make sure folks don’t return here, that we can bring crime rates down throughout the community, bring tax payer dollars so it isn’t brought into places like this, but is used for all the other purposes that we need to use it for. But that means helping folks turn their life around after they’ve made a terrible mistake,” Peters said.
“What’s going to stop the flow of violence in the street and slow down recidivism, the repeat crime, what’s going to increase the ability for people to go into trades and get jobs, what really does save money and social costs? The answer is IGNITE,” Swanson said.
In addition to the federal funding for IGNITE, Peters said he’s also working on a grant program to help people adjusting back into their communities after being in jail.
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