Jelly Roll makes a habit of visiting jails and prisons while on tour to share his message of hope and recovery. While stopping at the Genesee County Jail in Flint, Mich., the singer-songwriter happened to need his hair trimmed. Lucky for him, an inmate there had recently graduated from the I.G.N.I.T.E barber program and was searching for his first customer.
A video shared on social media by Detroit country station 99.5 WYCD shows Jelly Roll getting a haircut from the inmate as deputies watch on. Fittingly, "Need a Favor" plays over the footage as the newly-trained barber does Jelly Roll a solid.
During the same visit, Jelly Roll handed out diplomas to I.G.N.I.T.E. graduates, as chronicled online by WYCD.
"Big things can happen in y'alls life," Jelly Roll told the inmates. "Big things can happen. I believe in y'all. I'm praying for y'all. When I leave here I'll be thinking about y'all tonight when I'm at Little Caesars Arena about an hour down the street."
I.G.N.I.T.E. stands for Inmate Growth Naturally and Intentionally Through Education. The program offers higher education opportunities those those jailed by the Genesee County Sheriff's Office. The barber program was announced in July of 2023.
"I.G.N.I.T.E's mission is to reverse the cycle of generational incarceration through education," reads the program's website. "Educating inmates has numerous benefits that help reduce recidivism and make the community safer. 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. Educational programs have also been found to reduce generational incarceration by offering inmates a way to break out of the cycle perpetuated by previous generations.
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