Inmates battling addiction get an unlikely ally: a puppy
BOSCAWEN, N.H. >> Caitlin Hyland’s New Hampshire jail cell looks like those of many of her fellow inmates, featuring family photos, a few books and a cot. But one thing sets it apart: the cage on the floor for a 4-week-old puppy.
Hyland, a 28-year-old from Concord, New Hampshire, who is serving time for a drug conviction, is one of four inmates at the Merrimack County jail who are training puppies for the next month. In a partnership between a group called Hero Pups and the jail, two male and two female inmates, who are all in the jail’s drug treatment program, will raise the puppies for the next two months. They will eventually be handed over to military veterans and first responders who are struggling with post-traumatic stress disorder and other challenges.
The program is the first of its kind in New Hampshire but mirrors similar programs around the country in which inmates raise and care for animals, typically dogs.
NEADS World Class Service Dogs works with inmates at seven facilities in Massachusetts and Rhode Island to train service dogs, while Leader Dogs for the Blind works
with prisons in Minnesota, Iowa and Michigan in raising puppies that eventually become guide dogs for people who are blind. At one program at the Erie County Correctional Facility in New York, inmates raise pheasant chicks that are then released into the wild.
Supporters of the programs say the puppies get a dedicated trainer while the inmates learn to be more caring, compassionate and enterprising — skills that can help them once they are released. Several studies suggest that puppy programs in prisons and jails have reduced anxiety and depression among inmates and increased morale among staff. Some groups say the programs have lowered recidivism rates, though it’s
unclear what role the puppies played.
In New Hampshire, Merrimack County Department of Corrections Superintendent Ross Cunningham said he hopes the puppy program will help inmates undergoing drug treatment to stay clean.
“It’s teaching them some responsibility. It’s teaching them some structure,” he said, adding that he appreciates how a dog trained in a jail returns to the community and becomes part of a family.
“It has had a positive impact. When I look on security cameras, I see puppies running around,” said Assistant Merrimack County Department of Corrections Superintendent Kara Wyman. “That lifts the staff.”