Dogs lead prisoners into rehabilitation
IT’S time to meet the next winner of the Mirror People’s Pet Awards with Webbox. Our team went through thousands of nominations to produce a shortlist for the judging panel, who chose which animals and animal lovers should receive a trophy.
We’re now revealing them every week on this page – and today it’s the winner of our Inspiration Award, Rachel Trafford. ith 30 years’ experience as an animal behaviourist under her belt, Rachel Trafford knows a thing or two about dogs.
Now the canine expert, managing director and founder of vocational programme Restart Dogs has turned her attention to sharing her incredible knowledge with prisoners as they learn to become assistance dog trainers.
“From what we’ve seen so far, it can be lifechanging for the people who get the chance to take part,” says Rachel.
“As far as prisoners go, the experience is invaluable. They learn so many soft skills, emotional regulation and how to think about their behaviour.”
Restart Dogs’ first course began with youth offenders at Werrington Young Offenders Institution in 2019.
“We worked with 15 to 18-year-olds, and it did very well,” says Rachel, from Staffordshire. “We’re not there any more but we’ve still got some great contact with young people from the programme, and they haven’t gone back in – and that’s got to be a good sign.” Category B Dovegate in Staffordshire became
WRachel’s
changing the first adult men’s prison in England to run a fulltime dog training course in 2021, with the arrival of pups Emily, Rosa, Maya and Greta. And late last year, the Restart Dogs team began work with inmates at Category C prison Fosse Way in Leicester.
With the support of professional dog trainers – as well as foster volunteers who care for the animals on evenings and weekends – participants are with their pooches from 8am to 4pm Monday to Friday.
They have the opportunity to complete a qualification in Canine Behaviour, alongside practical work with their dog.
As well as training the animals for assistance roles working with people in the community, the programme is designed to help boost empathy levels and self-esteem among the participating prisoners. Rachel, 55, says: “We use only positive reinforcement techniques with the dogs. There is no punishment when the animals get things wrong, so the participants learn not to be confrontational.
“They learn how to cope under pressure, how to be patient and stay calm. It makes a massive difference.”
Working with a number of dogs and prisoners at a time on each course, Rachel says the team have worked with around 20 prisoners so far, including more than 10 who are still on the programme.
“We’ve got 12 dogs in the system at the moment, all at various stages of training,” she adds. “And there are four more prisoners due to join us in February.”