A not-for-profit organization dedicated to training assistance dogs, has teamed up with a Wisconsin correctional facility.
Can Do Canines launched the program in Jackson County this week and has programs implemented in prisons across Wisconsin and Minnesota.
According Can Do Canines, the program assigns two inmates a dog. The inmates are then responsible for raising the dog and teaching it proper obedience. In some cases, they can even teach the dogs assistance skills.
The training takes 12-14 months. From there, the dogs leave the prison and receive further training. For the inmates, the time spent with the puppies is rehabilitating.
“This is my little way of redemption,” Lee Brooks, an inmate at Jackson Correctional Institution, said. “We all make mistakes, and unfortunately I’ve made a couple myself. But just being productive and doing something that ultimately will help someone and maybe give back in a little way.”
Once the dogs have completed their training, they are given away for free to people with disabilities.
“It is life changing for them,” said Dyan Larson, Prison Program Director for Can Do Canines. “The volunteers, the people who get the dogs, all appreciate the inmates that do the training in the prisons, because again, they wouldn’t be able to be getting these dogs if it weren’t for the fact the inmates are training them to begin with.”
Can Do Canines can have 40 to 50 dogs placed in the program at any given time, according to the website.