Inmates are training puppies to become service dogs

On a quintessential New England farm in Concord, Massachusetts, sits Northeastern Correctional Facility, home to 270 inmates. “The economy went down the drain, lost my job, had a mortgage to pay, robbed a couple of drug dealers,” says Russell Jones an inmate. “I made a mistake in 1997,” says Sergio Torres another inmate. But within the facilities halls, more than just inmates doing time, a dozen Labrador retrievers call this place their home for now. Part of a prison puppy partnership, developed in Massachusetts 11 years ago, by NEADS, a non-profit that partners dogs with the deaf and disabled. “They are trained by inmates 24 hours a day, 5 days a week. Friday afternoons they are taken out by weekend puppy raisers, so they can feel the different sights and sounds that they will encounter with their human partner when they’re out in the real world,” according to John Moon of NEADS. “I do see a change in these guys. Some come in, don’t know if they’re going to make it, they just run around, they get out of that inmate mentality. They’re a person and accomplishing something,” says Sgt. Dean Gray of the Northeastern Correctional Facility.

Each puppy is assigned to an inmate who has been approved for the program. To be a trainer, you have to be considered a model prisoner and for up to 18 months, they share a room together, take walks together and just like best friends, enjoy good talks. “There are worse ways to do crime. I find myself narrating my life, talking out loud to him like he understands me,” Jones says. Sergio Torres is partnered up with 5 month old Lois, “she knows how to turn the light now, she also sits, plays, goes into the kennel,” Torres says.

More importantly, the inmates teach the dogs commands that will help provide independence for people with physical disabilities, war vets who have lost limbs, for example, children with autism, and others. Many of the commands are taught in a weekly class taught by Judy Rodenizer. “The sooner we can get them trained, the better. There’s a whole line of people waiting, and it makes us happy. We can do this, we can help somebody else and we can do it as a team,” Rodenizer says. The dogs learn how to turn on lights, bark when there’s an accident, jump, even take out the trash. Training isn’t always easy, still the NEADS prison puppies program has been a success. To date, over 80 puppies raised at 15 prisons across New England have been placed as service dogs. While there’s no doubt the families on the receiving end benefit, so do the prisoners, who, for some period of time behind bars, get to share their cell with man’s best friend. “It feels like my time isn’t exactly wasted, I’m helping somebody and feel good at the end of the day about it,” Russell Jones says. “When she leaves, that will be the hardest part for me,” Sergio Torres says about his service dog, “I love her like she was mine, you know.”