- The Frederick Douglass Project for Justice creates conversations between incarcerated residents and community members in Flint’s Genesee County Jail.
- Its mission is to bring those who haven’t touched the criminal justice system into jails to create conversation and moments of humanity.
- The national organization creates conversation in over 20 facilities across the country.
The image of jail for many people is defined by walls, locks and separation. But inside the Genesee County Jail in Flint, a unique initiative is bringing outside visitors face-to-face with incarcerated residents to break down barriers.
When people first step into the classroom-sized room inside the jail, the contrast is stark. On one side sits a line of men in maroon uniforms. On the other, visitors from the outside.
The separation feels like the distance of another world. Even for jail staff, letting strangers walk through those doors is nerve wracking.
"I'm just like... my blood pressure goes up, I start sweating a little bit,” Captain David Kennamer said. “But I meet with everyone before they come up here, and I say one thing to them every single time: The one thing you're going to remember is you're going to find out that they're just people. They're just people, man.”.
Program participant Tonya Maveros shared that having watched a family member cycle in and out of the corrections system over her lifetime, she walked in wanting to find the human stories behind the statistics.
“From the perspective of being that family member, there's been a lot of recidivism for him,” Maveros said. “So I wanted to meet other people who may have had that same experience, but also learn more about who they are as individuals..."
Changing the public's perception of those incarcerated to combat mass incarceration is the central goal of The Frederick Douglass Project For Justice. The organization coordinates prison visits with over 20 institutions across the country.
The project’s namesake is a tribute to one of the leading abolitionists of the 19th century. Born into slavery, Frederick Douglass escaped as a young man and became a voice for emancipation. After buying his freedom, he championed equality and freedom for enslaved people.
On the organization’s website, their mission statement states “human interaction can be transformative”. Right underneath it quotes Douglass: “I saw nothing without seeing it, I heard nothing without hearing it, and felt nothing without feeling it.”
The group meets at the Genesee County jail once a month where the non-profit breaks down societal stigmas by pulling chairs into a circle and asking visitors and residents to sit side-by-side. What begins with stiff posture and polite smiles quickly turns into discussions about family, favorite books and home-cooked meals.
For visitor Keith Blain, that conversation makes the jail walls briefly disappear.
"The conversation we had in our small group was fun, it was stimulating,” Blain said. “The insightfulness, the honesty... I forgot where I was for a second. We're having a casual conversation, just enjoying each other's company.”
Genesee County Jail is also home to the I.G.N.I.T.E program, which stands for Inmate Growth Naturally and Intentionally through Education.
The educational program, launched by former gubernatorial candidate Sheriff Christopher R. Swanson, provides inside residents with job training and aims to combat recidivism with education.
Resident Nicholas Sweet is using I.G.N.I.T.E to prepare himself for opportunities on the outside.
“I've taken a course on like peer recovery coaching,” Sweet said. “Like for when I get out, I can go and work. I'd have to take the state exam to work in treatment, help other addicts.”
In a study published by Oxford University Press on behalf of President and Fellows of Harvard College, researchers estimated that each additional month in I.G.N.I.T.E reduces weekly in-jail misconduct by about 25%. They also found that it reduces 3-month recidivism by about 24%, with larger reductions over longer time horizons.
I.G.N.I.T.E and the Frederick Douglass Project’s work at the Genesee County Jail has provided a successful example for other jails. Jason Gould, Major of Operations and Restorative Justice, has seen the inspiration firsthand.
“Other agencies are opening their eyes to it and they're starting to do things like this, whether it's IGNITE or whether it's Frederick Douglass project,” Gould said. “...They become force multipliers because when they can see that we can do this here in Flint, Michigan, they think, wow, I didn't think we could do it in our town, maybe we can.”
During the conversation, resident Nader Ghanem noticed how quickly the group stripped away labels to reveal something universal.
“Whether you're from the outside or you're in here... everyone that I spoke to, no matter if you're a good person, a bad person, or however you feel about yourself… Everyone here has someone that means the absolute world to them. We're all loved, and we all have people that we love,” Ghanem said.
By the time the session wraps up, the initial tension in the room has completely evaporated. Instead, what's left is a room full of strangers who refuse to let the walls that separate them obscure their shared humanity.
