Paw and Order: Prison Dog Programs and Their Impact on Rehabilitation in the Criminal Justice System

• Publication year: 2018
• Author: By Amber Fountain

PAW AND ORDER: PRISON DOG PROGRAMS AND THEIR IMPACT ON REHABILITATION IN THE CRIMINAL JUSTICE SYSTEM

By Amber Fountain^*

I. Introduction

Animal-assisted therapy has been gaining traction in recent decades, and rehabilitative and stabilizing programs have been utilized in multiple settings, from schools to hospitals to courtrooms.¹ There is significant research showing the positive effects of animal interaction on certain populations, including young children, people with physical or mental disabilities, people who have experienced trauma, and people requiring palliative care.² There is another category of people who can and should benefit from animal-assisted therapy: prison inmates.

Some people tend to view felons as animals. What if that notion was flipped on its head-what if animals could be used to help rehabilitate criminal offenders? Recently, some prisons have seen an influx of a different kind of inmate: dogs. This paper argues for the expansion of animal-assisted therapy programs within prisons nationwide, with a specific emphasis on dog training programs. The idea is to take at-risk shelter dogs, place them in prisons, and have inmates who qualify for the program train them to become service dogs (or at least close companions) for people who need assistance due to a physical or emotional disability. Thus, animal-assisted therapy can come full cycle in a low-cost, highly efficient manner: vulnerable inmate populations can work toward their own rehabilitative goals through interacting with and training dogs that will go on to provide therapy to those outside the prison walls.

II. The Need for Inmate Animal-Assisted Therapy Programs

One of the main goals driving the criminal justice system is rehabilitation. However, decades of being "tough on crime" have caused the United States to have "the highest per capita rates of incarceration of any industrialized democracy."³ Every year, the United States spends $80 billion (excluding external costs of incarceration) to incarcerate more than 2.4 million people.⁴ Despite the money spent, the United States Sentencing Commission reported in 2016 that 49.3% of federal offenders were rearrested within the first eight years after release; 31.7% were reconvicted, and 24.6% were reincarcerated.⁵ It is time to consider alternative approaches.

There are also humanitarian reasons to focus more on rehabilitative measures. Inmates are frequently treated in ways that undermine them and strip them of their dignity, and deplorable prison conditions do not provide much hope or incentive to give back in a positive way. Violence and rape are common in prisons.⁶ Prisons are so overcrowded that people are often forced to live in inhumane conditions, such as sleeping on the floor next to a leaking toilet with four other people in a cell meant for two.⁷ Getting away from other inmates, however, is just as bad. Solitary confinement can lead to "chronic depression, panic attacks, paranoia, hallucinations, nightmares, and self-mutilation."⁸ Today, the suicide rate for incarcerated persons is 16.5 per 100,000 people, which is 1.587 times greater than the risk for non-incarcerated persons.⁹

Many inmates come from impoverished and/or abusive backgrounds, and have been victims of trauma.¹⁰ If left untreated, "the effects of trauma can leave individuals without the coping mechanisms and ability to regulate their emotions, leaving them vulnerable to misperceive their surroundings, responding, even violently, to a trigger at any moment."¹¹ In fact, "research reveals that 83.8% of individuals convicted of killing someone suffered severe physical and emotional abuse and 32.2% were sexually violated as children."¹²

Also, many inmates suffer from language or learning disabilities that make it even harder to cope with the harsh conditions. As of 2003, more than half of the inmate population only had basic or below basic literacy levels, and many had trouble completing everyday activities such as reading a simple form.¹³ Studies show "the operation of inner speech facilitates the rehearsal of rules, the ability to consider and modify ongoing behavior with respect to its consequences, and the ability to form appropriate plans for future action."¹⁴ As a result, a lack of sufficient verbal skills can lead to an inability to accurately assess and appropriately respond to social situations, causing people to react "impulsively, foolishly, irresponsibly, and at times aggressively."¹⁵ Language impairments affect interactions with others, and make it more likely that someone winds up in court; once there, the language impairments can negatively impact the court's perception of the individual if they are perceived as non-compliant or unremorseful, when really they are incapable of responding to social cues.

These factors make it much more difficult for inmates to cope with the already harsh conditions. This is just one area where the dog programs can be immensely helpful. With a dog, there is an unspoken language and connection. The dog is not judging their every move or word, and an inmate can let their guard down around their canine companion. In training the dog, they must find a way to convey to the dog what they want them to do; without even realizing it, they are working on developing ways to communicate with other beings, and are learning about themselves and their abilities simultaneously.

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Thus, prison dog programs are rehabilitative because they give prisoners something to work toward, and they have the potential to improve quality of life for the inmates who are living in the toughest conditions, often with significant internal emotion and anxiety. They provide hope that participants in the programs will defy statistics and not return to prison after their release.

III. Existing Prison Dog Programs as Models for Successful Implementation of Animal-Assisted Therapy

A. Brief History of Animals in Prisons

In recent decades, more facilities throughout the country have been creating new programs in which prisoners interact with animals to further rehabilitation. The idea started to gain traction in 1975, when an animal therapy program was started at a secure mental health facility in Ohio after inmates came together to care for an injured bird they found on the premises.¹⁶ After only one year, the inmates in the sections with animal therapy programs required less medication and had less incidents of violence than those in the wards without animal therapy.¹⁷

The first animal program in a corrections facility was inspired by a nun, Sister Pauline Quinn, who has since started over a dozen similar programs nationwide.¹⁸ This first program at the Washington Correction Center for Women in 1981 helped women build self-esteem and a skill set that would benefit them upon release. Dogs from the program were given to children with special needs. One canine graduate named Glory was trained to help a young boy in a wheelchair navigate curbs and retrieve items he dropped. Another dog, Sheba, recognized the onset of seizures in a young girl before they happened. The first program in a federal prison was in Tampa, Florida after the FBI eliminated the ban on animals in prisons. Today, these federal programs have expanded to work with army inmates to train service dogs for military veterans and their families.

State and federal corrections facilities have been gradually implementing prison dog programs. Some programs are as short as a few weeks and provide basic obedience training, while others last for 18 months or longer and provide the extensive training necessary to become a service dog. Each facility is different in what types of programs they are reasonably able to implement, but each program has an impact on the lives of the dogs, trainers, and the "furrever families" receiving the dog.

B. "Paws for Life" Is A Good Example of a Short-Term Program

"Paws for Life" is one such program located at a California State Prison in Lancaster, California; it is the first of its kind in California to work with inmates serving life sentences.¹⁹ The program is a joint effort between the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation and Karma Rescue, a non-profit organization based in Los Angeles, California.²⁰ The rescue's mission is to "create a compassionate society which provides safety, refuge, and protection for all animals."²¹ The organization recognizes that interaction with animals can bring out the best in people, and has several humane education and outreach programs, including educational programs at low-income schools, the provision of dog and cat food to homeless individuals with pets, visitations to juvenile detention facilities, and the Paws for Life program.²²

Paws for Life is an intensive, 12-week training program in which a certified trainer helps provide inmates with the skills they need to train a dog to pass the "Canine Good Citizen Test."²³ Dogs who pass this certification have mastered basic tricks and etiquette, and may accompany their owners into public places. Dogs in this program would likely otherwise be euthanized, and the training makes them much more attractive to potential adopters. In the program's pilot debut, 14 inmates were selected to train five shelter dogs. Within one...