The Yavapai County Sheriff’s Office launched the Inmate Growth Naturally and Intentionally Through Education program on Monday, May 18, at 10 a.m. at the Camp Verde Detention Center.
The opening made Camp Verde the first site in Arizona and the 36th in the nation to have the program with the goal of reducing recidivism.
IGNITE was launched in September 2020 “by Chris Swanson, sheriff of Genesee County and has since grown into a flagship program of the National Sheriffs’ Association,” YCSO wrote on social media. “The program is designed to reduce recidivism and improve outcomes by providing incarcerated individuals with structured access to education, vocational training and personal development opportunities.”
IGNITE is a merit-based system, where participants earn opportunities and privileges through participation in educational opportunities. The initiative uses modern technology, a structured curriculum and community partnerships.
“A longstanding and influential view in U.S. correctional policy is that ‘nothing works’ when it comes to rehabilitating incarcerated individuals,” according to a November 2024 paper published by the National Bureau of Economic Research. Researchers “find that one additional month of IGNITE exposure reduces weekly misconduct within jail and three-month recidivism by 25% and 24%, respectively, with the recidivism effects growing over time.”
Researchers from Harvard University, Brown University and Stanford University have studied the IGNITE program independently, finding that participants were less likely to re-offend and showed improved outcomes after release.
Through that model, inmates earn industry certifications, hands-on job training and education credits — leaving with credentials from high school completion and financial literacy to trade skills and addiction education.
“We find that exposure to IGNITE dramatically reduces an individual’s propensity for both within-jail misconduct and post-release recidivism. One additional month of exposure to IGNITE is estimated to reduce the number of weekly major misconduct incidents by 0.14 [25%] and to reduce three-month recidivism by 9 percentage points [24%],” the 2024 paper stated. “These effects are similar across different demographic groups, prior offense status. Estimated recidivism effects grow over time — to around a 15 percentage point reduction in one-year recidivism — and are concentrated among individuals with high predicted recidivism risk. In economic terms, we find that one additional month of IGNITE exposure reduces the three-month social cost of crime and incarceration post-release by at least $2,954 per incarcerated individual.”
“IGNITE reflects a powerful new vision for public safety,” YCSO Sheriff David Rhodes wrote in a press release. “It’s about believing in people’s potential, not just defining them by their past. This program helps individuals rebuild purpose, take responsibility and gain the skills and confidence needed to create a brighter future — for themselves, their families and our entire community.”
