Pawsitive Approach
Prison Program
Pawsitive Approach is a joint effort between the Texas Department
of Criminal Justice (specifically, the Dominguez State Jail and Travis County Sherriff’s Department), the
Windham School District and Guide Dogs of Texas, Inc..
Our common Pawsitive Approach goals are:
1. To serve the visually impaired community of Texas
2. To provide the opportunity for non-violent offenders to
exercise responsibility, learn how to nurture, focus attention,
problem solve and cooperate with others in order to achieve a common
goal
3. To foster pro-social behavior and to facilitate reintegration
into society
What will be accomplished?
1. Offenders will develop life
skills while cooperating with fellow offenders, jail employees and
volunteers while learning to nurture, socialize and teach basic
obedience to puppies who may be later trained as guide dogs. The act
of caring for and being responsible for a puppy will teach offenders
life skills and provide them with tools like patience, teamwork and
understanding. Our collective goal is to help these individuals
develop the skills necessary to build character, contribute to their
families and to their community at large.
2. The puppies raised in Pawsitive Approach are candidates for
formal guide dog training by Texas' only guide dog school, Guide Dogs of Texas, Inc.. Approximately a quarter of
a million blind individuals live in Texas and another three thousand
Texans become blind each year. They deserve the mobility, independence
and loving companionship a well-trained guide dog offers.
3. The average jail confinee at the Dominguez State Jail
receives one disciplinary case a month. To process a disciplinary
case, it costs the State of Texas $175. Offenders, who are Puppy
Raisers or aspiring Puppy Raisers, must avoid disciplinary cases.
Presently, the Dominguez State Jail has 14 offenders involved in
Pawsitive Approach and several other offenders on a waiting list. As
long as we maintain 14 eligible offender participants, who are
"case-free", the program will save the State of Texas $2,450 a month.
As the program expands, the savings will grow.
How it all happens:
Every puppy placed at a jail is raised by a team
of two dedicated men and a volunteer Puppy Raiser. This team works
hard to prepare the puppy for future guide dog work. The Puppy Raising
TEAM will share the responsibility of raising and socializing a puppy.
This shared responsibility will foster the focus, patience,
cooperation, understanding and teamwork needed to accomplish a common
goal.
The inmates teach the puppy basic obedience, good social manners, and
perform daily grooming as well as establish the emotional bond between
puppy and handler. The inmates are allowed up to five,
officer-supervised, walks per week with their puppy in San Antonio.
Many of these walks are done in the downtown area. Training walks
require a variety of settings so the offenders will also work in
malls, shopping centers and residential areas.
The pups also lack the experience of living in a true home. This is
where you can be of such a huge benefit. You can help to reinforce
their learned behaviors and expose them to the environment by taking
the pup on an indoor training walk once a week, and bringing them to
your home for one or two weekend visits a month, with more indoor
training walks on these days.
Each Pawsitive Approach puppy is assigned a volunteer-raiser to
perform the indoor walking and living tasks the offenders cannot
contribute to fully.
What happens next?
When the puppy has matured, he becomes a candidate for the next
phase of the training. This means the Team must say "goodbye" to the
puppy they raised. Although there are tears, it means the Team has
reached it's goal and the puppy has become a confident, happy dog who
will work to become the eyes of a blind Texan. They will have made a
wonderful difference in the life of a visually impaired Texan.
How did this program come about?
Like most things in life, timing is everything. The Puppy
Program Manager at Guide Dogs of Texas, Inc. was developing this program at the same time Principal
Owen Kelly at the Dominguez State Jail was wanting to develop an
educational program for confinees centered around the
human/animal bond. We "share the same vision" - something that will
last long after the confinee returns home.
Who wins? We all do! The confinees and their families, the guide
dog program, the prison system, taxpayers and most importantly,
visually impaired Texans.
More Information
For more information about our puppy program, click on one of
the following pages:
Helping With
Pawsitive Approach
About Puppy Raisers
Puppy
Donation Requirements
Click HERE to request
additional information. |
