A Comparative Study of Stress Reduction Groups With and Without Therapy Dogs in a Rural Pennsylvania Jail

• Published date: 01 November 2024
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1177/00328855241278331
• Author: Yvonne M. Eaton-Stull,Christopher Streidl,Tracy L. Leet,Sarah Kuehn,Kaitlyn Crawford,Christina Koishal
• Date: 01 November 2024

A Comparative Study of

Stress Reduction Groups

With and Without

Therapy Dogs in a Rural

Pennsylvania Jail

Yvonne M. Eaton-Stull

1

,

Christopher Streidl

1

, Tracy L. Leet

1

,

Sarah Kuehn

1

, Kaitlyn Crawford

1

,

and Christina Koishal

1

Abstract

Individuals who are incarcerated are often stressed, hopeless, and over-

whelmed by this challenging life circumstance. Unfortunately, jails offer little

treatment to assist in enhancing coping and fostering hope and resilience.

This research study in a rural Pennsylvania jail provided four six-week coping

and stress reduction groups, two with and two without therapy dogs.

Findings indicate that all group participants experienced signif‌icant reduc-

tions in stress, improved resilience, and an increased sense of hope as mea-

sured by standardized scales. All four groups rated the interventions as very

helpful.

Keywords

jail, coping, stress, animal-assisted therapy

1

Slippery Rock University, Slippery Rock, PA, USA

Corresponding Author:

Yvonne M. Eaton-Stull, Social Work Department, Slippery Rock University, 1 Morrow Way,

Slippery Rock, PA 16057, USA.

Email: yvonne.eaton-stull@sru.edu

Article

The Prison Journal

2024, Vol. 104(5) 645–660

© 2024 SAGE Publications

Article reuse guidelines:

sagepub.com/journals-permissions

DOI: 10.1177/00328855241278331

journals.sagepub.com/home/tpj

Introduction

The United States (US) has the highest incarceration rate in the world. There

are currently two million people behind bars, and the high percentage of incar-

cerated persons with mental health issues is a signif‌icant concern (Sawyer &

Wagner, 2022). Research indicates that justice-involved individuals have life

histories of violence and traumatic or critical life events leading to a higher

prevalence of mental health disorders compared to the general population.

These include but are not limited to anxiety, depression, and post-traumatic

stress disorder (PTSD) (Furst, 2019; Grady et al., 2024; Hediger et al.,

2022;Villafaina-Dominguez et al., 2020). These mental health challenges

are often exacerbated by the stressful and conf‌ined nature of correctional facil-

ities (Bronson & Berzofsky, 2017; Ramezani et al., 2022; Yi et al., 2017).

Overcrowding, solitary conf‌inement, and exposure to violence add to the

challenging incarceration experience (Quandt & Jones, 2021). Despite the

high rates of mental health disorders in U.S. carceral populations, access to

mental health treatment in correctional settings is often limited. Budget con-

straints, overcrowding, understaff‌ing, and a lack of trained mental health pro-

fessionals contribute to inadequate facility mental health care and treatment

that can undermine an inmate’s participation in rehabilitation programs and

increase their risk of recidivism upon release (Adams &Ferrandino, 2008;

Grady et al., 2024; Mears & Cochran, 2012; Reingle et al., 2014).

Inmates’Mental Health Prof‌ile and Treatment Inventions in

Correctional Settings

Given the substantial, though recently stabilized, growth in the U.S. incarcer-

ation rate since the 1970s and the high percentage of incarcerated individuals

with serious mental health disorders, it is not surprising that prisons and jails

have become the largest mental health providers in the nation (Reingle et al.,

2014). This situation has become even more concerning, with the opioid epi-

demic having a major impact in the rural Appalachian region of the United

States, particularly affecting its county jails over the past two decades

(Schalkoff et al., 2020). As noted by Steadman et al. (2016), the Coalition

for Jail Reform observed that “mentally ill people often end up in jail

because there is no other space for them in our communities”(p. 11). This

point is emphasized by Ramezani et al. (2022), who suggest that jails have

become “mental health or substance use care of last resort when police do

not have other places to take someone”(p. 7). With nearly 7.7 million jail

admissions in 2021 and mental health, one of the most prominent concerns

in these rural jails, in particular major depression and PTSD (Singer et al.,

646 The Prison Journal 104(5)