Unlikely Partners Give Each Other Second Chances

The challenging task of creating programs that will help inmates once they reenter society continues to be high on the list of priorities for our correctional system. Consequently, many prisoners today have access to a wide variety of academic or vocational classes while incarcerated. It has been argued for some time that simple incarceration for a crime committed is not successful. Often inmates simply do not have the life or job skills sufficient to keep them away from the habits and lifestyle choices that put them in prison to begin with. As a result, without proper training, these individuals can, and often do, end up back in prison in what becomes a perpetual cycle that burdens society and wastes humanity. The rehabilitative programs in use today are aimed specifically at breaking the cycle of recidivism, and their successes are well documented.

One extraordinary program is being used in several central Virginia correctional centers. Buckingham Correctional Center, Fluvanna Correctional Center for Women, Virginia Correctional Center and Lunenburg Correctional Center all have implemented the classes with great success. The overall goal for inmates is the same as with any other program: to gain life skills that they can use when released. However, the approach is unique in that it couples prisoners with another of the most at risk populations that exists in the Commonwealth of Virginia.

Through a partnership between the Virginia Department of Corrections and Fetch a Cure, a nonprofit organization whose primary mission is to treat and place dogs that have cancer into adoptive homes, a program called Pixie’s Pen Pals came to realization. Under the supervision and guidance of two certified dog trainers, Virginia Dare and Katie Locks, inmates learn “responsibility, patience, and emotional confidence, among other character building qualities while working with the animals.” Additionally, the much needed human socialization and obedience training that the dogs undergo is necessary to make them eligible for potential adoption. Each dog that is adopted from the program is, in a sense, a victory for the inmate handler and their dog, as well as for the family that is fortunate enough to take one of these canines home. The program reduces euthanasia by increasing the adoptive canine numbers through training and socialization. Additionally, inmates in the program often go on to careers in pet training after they are released.

     It is easy to understand why Pixie’s Pen Pals is such a profound success. There is a measure of identification inmate handlers have with the animals that makes an undeniable and lasting impression. In the time the two work together, human and animal are both still prisoners. What’s more, the ultimate goal for both is exactly the same: get the training it takes to leave and never return. One inmate handler, in an excellent description of her experiences with the dogs while working with Pixie’s Pen Pals, drew the parallels of her life as a prisoner with the life of a dog in a shelter: “As crazy as it sounds, shelters are set up just like prisons – noisy, unruly, and chaotic at times. Just as the author stated, ‘a dog’s reaction to any sort of stimulus can be exquisitely responsive to the situations he or she is in.’ Could that not also be said about humans?” She also pointedly stated, “I’ve yet to see one offender who completed the program return to prison after being released.” That is quite a testimony of success.

If you would like to learn more about adopting a pet from the Pixie’s Pen Pals program, which actually began under the old “Save Our Shelters” organization, visit them at: www.fetchacure.com/pen-pals or call Sarah Hornberger at (804) 525-2193.