Mike Smith
Artesia Daily Press
msmith@currentargus.com

A nationwide program designed to help jailed inmates attain education and life skills after release has made its way to Eddy County.

The program, wielding the unwieldy name “Inmate Growth Naturally and Intentionally Through Education” – better known as IGNITE – was founded in 2020 by a sheriff in Genesee County, Michigan, and later replicated by the National Sheriff’s Association. Sheriff Mark Cage began the process of bringing it to Eddy County last January.

Cage made its arrival official during a Dec. 5 press conference at the sheriff’s office along with Billy Massingill, warden of the Eddy County Detention Center, and Fayette County, Pennsylvania, Sheriff James Custer who embraced the program after seeing it in action in Michigan.

Custer was instrumental in helping Eddy County get access to the program, according to Cage who called IGNITE “a hand up, not a handout.”

“This is good for our society,” he said. “I believe we’re going to bring down violence.”

Massingill said the program benefits not only inmates and jails but entire communities. He said IGNITE will advance Eddy County’s commitment to “improving our correctional facility and the lives of those within it.”

He said the program “will play a pivotal role in achieving that goal by reducing recidivism, enhancing safety and fostering positive change.”

Cage said partnerships with other Eddy County entities will be key to ensuring the program’s success.

“We need help from our community partners,” he said.

Southeast New Mexico College President Kevin Beardmore attended the press conference and affirmed support for the program. He said IGNITE gives inmates a chance to show society believes in them after they are released.

“When I hear them talking about this it makes all the sense in the world to me, and Southeast New Mexico College plans to be part of this,” he said.

Beardmore said the college will work with IGNITE to help prisoners prepare for life after confinement.

“I can immediately think of things in welding, commercial driver’s license, nurse’s aid that would probably fit in very well,” he said. “Really, it comes down to the nuts and bolts from one transition to another.”

Beardmore said offering classes in halfway houses or at the jail are possibilities for the school’s involvement with the program.

“Our college is all about second chances,” he said. “So many times, when you are looking to improve yourself through education you have family needs and work; it’s hard to squeeze everything in. The one thing that I have seen with a program like this is that transition – we’re the next step in the chain of hope that leads to the next step,” he said.

County spokesperson Savannah Cabezuela said Eddy County is the 20th site in the nation to adopt the IGNITE program and the first in New Mexico.

Mike Smith can be reached at 575-308-8734 or email at msmith@currentargus.com.