Bonneville County celebrated its third year of the I.G.N.I.T.E. program with another graduation on Thursday, honoring 10 inmates who completed the process to earn their GED — bringing the total number of graduates to 102 over three years.
Among the latest 10 graduates were Felicia Minjares, Maria Carrillo, Joshua Spence, Jeremy Clark, Christian Rourick, Sergio Elizondo, Jeffery Sanchez, Kole Abegglen, Brian Moore and Nicholas Norby.
I.G.N.I.T.E. stands for Inmate Growth Naturally and Intentionally through Education. The program began in Bonneville County in September 2023; at the time, the county became the ninth in the nation to adopt the program and the first in Idaho.
The program was launched with the goal of lowering recidivism rates and breaking cycles of generational incarceration.
“Generational incarceration is a big problem here,” Lt. Brian Johnson said. “I’ve actually had three generations of a single family in jail at the same time. So if we could break that cycle even with one family, we thought we would have a success.”
I.G.N.I.T.E. was created by Sheriff Chris Swanson in Genesee County, Michigan, in 2020. Bonneville County Sheriff Samuel Hulse first heard about the program at a National Sheriffs’ Association conference and brought the idea back to Bonneville County.
Johnson and other officers were skeptical at first.
“Every time the sheriff goes to a conference and comes back with new ideas, we kind of roll our eyes and go, ‘Oh boy, here comes the sheriff with his new ideas again,’” Johnson said.
That changed after they joined a Zoom call with the eight other counties running the program. By the end of the call, they knew they had to bring it to Bonneville County.
Once launched, one of the biggest challenges was funding. County dollars cover essentially only staff salary time; the Adovo platform and treatment components are paid for using inmate funds generated through commissary sales. The county was also awarded a grant that funds the Adovo education platform on inmate tablets, providing more than 25,000 hours of free content.
The investment has paid off. In three years, the program has graduated more than 100 people and cut the recidivism rate to 25 percent among participants — a result Johnson called a major accomplishment.
“That blew us out of the water,” he said.
Community support has been one of the pillars of the program’s success.
“The community support for our program is huge,” Johnson said. “Very seldom have we ever had businesses tell us no.”
Beyond the statistics, participants have gone on to find real jobs after completing the program, reinforcing that the work has practical impact.
For Johnson, the program isn’t about recognition — it’s about giving people a genuine chance to continue their education.
“One of the biggest things I see is a shift in mindset on how they view law enforcement,” Johnson said. “They begin to understand that the staff in the jail really do have their best interests in mind. We really do care about them as individuals. They’re not just numbers to us.”