Mitzie with inmate Sharon Richardson.
The New York Times profiled Puppies Behind Bars June 1, which is a program that has inmates at several prisons in New York, New Jersey and Connecticut to help train service dogs to assist disabled people, including veterans returning from Iraq and Afghanistan.
The article focused on the women at the Bedford Hills Correctional Facility who train the dogs. Several of women said the training allows them to feel useful as they train dogs to do things for disabled people like flipping a light switch, shutting a closet door or taking off socks.
“One of the things prison usually means is being useless, being defined by our worst acts,” said Judy, 58, a New York City mother who did not want to give her last name. “The program gives me a sense I can be useful, useful to people on the outside, to some person who can be helped by having the fruits of my work. There’s a sense that what we do has a life that’s positive in other people’s lives.”
The puppies, all Labradors and golden retrievers, arrive at the prison when they are eight weeks old. They live in metal crates within the women’s cells. The puppies remain inside the prison, working one inmate exclusively to learn the 82 commands they need to know before they are off to their next level of more tailored training.
Many of the dogs will eventually be given free of charge to veterans of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars who have become disabled due to war injuries.
