IGNITE program aims to educate, train county inmates
Pennsylvania Attorney General Dave Sunday joined county officials at the county prison Wednesday, June 18, to usher in a new approach to inmate reform that aims to provide education and training to reduce recidivism.
Butler is only the third county in the state and 28th in the country to implement the Inmate Growth Naturally and Intentionally Through Education, or IGNITE, program.
IGNITE is a replica of a program initiated by the sheriff of Genesee County, Mich. It was adopted by the National Sheriffs’ Association in 2021.
The program is expected to begin in January or February. Wednesday’s launch was intended to entice community organizations to volunteer to work with inmates in the prison.
“I was a career prosecutor. I spent my entire career in a courtroom. I spent a lot of my time doing everything I could to put people into prison,” Sunday said. “And I realized as the years went on that there had to be more to the equation. We have to find another way to make our community safer.”
Warden Beau Sneddon said many inmates come from hardscrabble lives, and he hopes the program helps them become productive citizens when they are released.
“In the floors above us, there’s hundreds of people who don’t have an awesome life, don’t have a good life,” Sneddon said.
A lot of the inmates grew up with homelessness, hunger, physical and sexual abuse and exposure to drug and alcohol addiction with no encouragement or positive role models, he said.
“Those are the voids we’re tying to fill with the IGNITE program,” Sneddon said.
All inmates, including federal inmates and those sent from other counties due to crowded prisons, will be eligible, he said.
Some program infrastructure already is in place. Inmate computer tables have been loaded with 30,000 hours of job and skill training programs. Login surveys that inmates in the program take will generate a list of recommended classes, Sneddon said.
Inmates will have to complete prerequisite classes to get accepted in the program, which creates pathways they can use to address addiction or other challenges.
Community organizations will be needed for in-person training.
“We’re going to ask you to help us. We’ll need partnerships. We’ll need help. We’ll need fresh ideas, and we’re willing to try almost anything to impact people’s lives,” Sneddon said.
Inmates will receive a certificate for each training program they complete, and copies of the certificates can be sent to judges or family members, he said.
In addition, inmates in the program will be given blue uniforms instead of the traditional orange outfits to wear. When they appear in court, the judge will know the inmates are making an effort to improve themselves.
“We want people to leave here like they were shot out of a cannon. We want them to have confidence, education and skills they didn’t have before,” Sneddon said.
He spent a lot time learning about the program from officials in Fayette County, which was first in Pennsylvania to adopt the program in March 2024.
Fayette County Sheriff James Custer told the audience that the program has produced huge changes in the prison, and community partners have been eager to help.
A study of the program found that one month of participation reduces weekly jail misconduct incidents by 49%, and there have been no misconduct incidents in the IGNITE pod in the Fayette County prison since the program began, Custer said.
One month of program participation reduces three month recidivism by 19% and one year recidivism by 23%, and reduces the 12-month social cost of crime by $5,600 per person. Participants gain an average of a full grade level improvement in math and reading, and develop positive views of law enforcement, he said.
Butler County Sheriff Mike Slupe, who brought the program to Sneddon’s attention, said the program is needed to help inmates. Some can’t read, write or balance a checkbook, he said.
“We have to help them with that so they can rejoin society,” Slupe said.
