Prison service dog

Prison Inmates and Shelter Dogs Give Each Other a New ‘Chance’ on Life

Prison is one of the most unlikely places to train a dog,  especially it's a home of different kinds of people as often think of as society’s worst.

One of the oldest prison pet programs is Prison Pet Partnership Program, located in Washington State Corrections Center for Women. There is also Enfield Correctional Institution in Connecticut, who is working with America's VetDogs.

It is a nonprofit organization, that train service animals to help prisoners, military veterans and other people suffering from traumatic stress disorder. For the prisoners, it is a program where dogs receive the training necessary to make them a good candidate for adoptions, while prisoners receive a sense of purpose and pride in their accomplishments.

Inmates work with their rescue dogs

Sister Pauline Quinn was a Dominican nun who started the first dog training program for prison rehabilitation at the Washington State Institution for Women.  The sister realized that there is a therapeutic effect of dogs on human, to her specifically, that paved her recovery when she's suffering from a psychiatric hospitalization.

After her program in Washington,  it was also followed and used in other states, East Coast and in the North Central Correctional Institute in Gardner, Massachusetts, then followed in Maine. The staff noticed that there was a significant change in the prison cells and the inmates. Inmates were able to provide exceptionally well-trained dogs, and there was also a big decrease in tensions between inmates.

Dog on training

To be part of the training program, inmates must initially demonstrate their commitment,  interest,  and they will undergo a rigorous interview process to be a part of the program. And most importantly, they must keep a clean behavioral record while undergoing the program.

The program serves as vocational training for prisoners, who can earn certification in pet training and grooming. Since dogs came from an animal shelter, they are trained in obedience and offered to the public for adoption.

Playtime!

There are two training sessions per day for the inmates and dogs: skills like opening the refrigerator doors, turning on the light switches, and picking up items that might be difficult for a wounded veteran to reach. The dogs sleep right beside the inmates' bunk beds in their dorm-like cells; and during weekends, the dogs leave the prison and are being cared outside by civilians involved in the program.

The program is significant to both inmates and the dogs

This program is significant to both inmates and the dogs.  The animals were given a chance to lead lives of service,  while the prisoners will learn valuable skills so they may find to change their lives upon their release, and knowing that their time with the dogs is doing the same for a group of people. The service dogs helped the prisoners deal with anger, patience, persistence, and lots of love.  

Different correctional who have service dog training programs reported that for the most part, inmate tensions declined for those participating in the program.

Prison service dogs are now implemented not only in America, but also in the UK, Australia, Russia and other countries.

What an incredible way of helping the lives of the inmates, of the dogs and to the society as a whole!

“Many of the qualities that comes so effortlessly to dogs-loyalty, devotion, selflessness, unflagging optimism, unqualified love-can be elusive to humans.”

- John Grogan