FLINT (WWJ) - Super star Jelly Roll will make a private appearance in Flint on Tuesday to honor inmates graduating from the I.G.N.I.T.E. program, as well as celebrate his own milestone.
The breakout country musician, who won three CMT Music Awards for the song "Son of a Sinner" in 2023 and earned a Grammy nomination for Best New Artist, is set to meet with Genesee County Sheriff Chris Swanson and inmates who have earned their GEDs or other certifications through an education program at the Genesee County Jail in Flint.
"Some call him the Johnny Cash of the era," Campbell said. "...And he's going to be at the Genesee County Jail today as part of a graduation ceremony for 23 inmates."
According Campbell, the groundbreaking I.G.N.I.T.E. program, launched by Swanson himself, stands for Inmate Growth Naturally and Intentionally Through Education and provides job training to help inmates secure employment when they are released.
"Educating inmates has numerous benefits that help reduce recidivism and make the community safer," Swanson said on the program's website. "By providing inmates with valuable job training, they are equipped with skills they can use upon release to gain meaningful employment and reduce their likelihood of reoffending."
According to the program, educational initiatives like I.G.N.I.T.E. have been found to reduce generational incarceration by offering inmates a way to break out of the cycle perpetuated by previous generations.
Jelly Roll's involvement in Tuesday's graduation started out as a series of video messages. The singer expressed interest in coming to Flint and meeting with Sheriff Swanson after learning about the inmate programs.
"It was in prison where Jelly Roll earned his GED and that's why he wants to come back and be part of this program," Campbell reported.
The musician will not only give a private performance for the graduating inmates, but will also join them in walking across the stage to celebrate when he earned his own GED 16 years ago.
“Jelly earned his GED in 2007 while incarcerated, without recognition," the sheriff's office said. "Genesee County Sheriff Chris Swanson in collaboration with the I.G.N.I.T.E program will award Jelly his long-awaited GED commencement ceremony in the jail."
Swanson said the event will be closed to the public, with the singer set to privately enter and exit the facility and no media allowed inside the jail.
"His team has asked that for those that are going to be even in this staff with me, that there will be no phones, no private interviews, there will be no concert outside the jail, but he is going to participate in the,,, ceremony," the sheriff added.
According to Campbell, Swanson I.G.N.I.T.E. program has been so successful that the National Association of Sheriffs has now started copying it.
"The first new other county besides Genesee to get it is in New York," Campbell said.
Jelly Roll, the 38-year-old artist born Jason DeFord, has spoken openly about his journey from incarceration to selling out major concert venues. The singer told Billboard that he first found himself behind bars at age 16, when he was arrested for aggravated robbery and charged as an adult.
“I never want to overlook the fact that it was a heinous crime,” he told Billboard. “This is a grown man looking back at a 16-year-old kid that made the worst decision that he could have made in life and people could have got hurt and, by the grace of God, thankfully, nobody did.”
He also spoke about his frustration over how the judicial system offered him very little opportunities for rehabilitation.
He served a little over year for the charge and was on probation for seven years -- but he originally faced a 20-year sentence.
“They were talking about giving me more time than I’d been alive,” he said.
At 23, Jelly Roll wound up behind bars again for drug dealing. He said learning of the birth of his daughter, as well as being transferred from the violent offenders’ unit to the education unit and passing the test for his GED, changed his life.
“I’ve never had nothing in life that urged me in the moment to know that I had to do something different. I have to figure this out right now,” he said to Billboard.