NICK BARNETT
The cute puppies you see on this page have a big destiny in the world. When grown and trained, they'll live in the homes of people with long-term disabilities, opening and shutting cupboards and doors, emptying the washing machine, fetching the phone, and doing other crucial chores. What's especially remarkable is that these puppies are doing most of their growing up in prison.
It's the Puppies in Prison scheme, and I take my hat off to it. It's there to help the disabled, but it also gives prisoners a way to give to the society they've offended against. And the hope is that it will help make the prisoners into better citizens who are less likely to fall back into crime.
The scheme runs at two Auckland prisons, and may expand. Carefully chosen low-security prisoners share their self-care unit with a pup that they'll raise and train, guided by skilled trainers. At weekends, the dogs leave their prison guardians behind for socialisation in the ways of the "real" world - malls, escalators, traffic lights, crowds. The dogs are mostly large breeds such as Golden Retrievers and Labradors, because their job is going to require strength. When the puppy is 12 to 14 months old and its early training is over, it will leave to complete its training at kennels run by the Mobility Assistance Dogs Trust.
The trust's general manager, Jody Hogan, told me that six months is a typical time for advanced training. The trust, formed in 2005, started with puppy raisers who socialised and trained the puppies in their own homes; now "close to 40" dogs are in service, she says.
Then several factors came together. The trust needed more puppy raisers with plenty of time on their hands, and prisoners fitted the bill; overseas research revealed that "dogs in prison" schemes seemed to reduce recidivism; and the Corrections Department was keen to try out such a scheme. Puppies in Prisons began in 2008 at Auckland Region Women's Corrections Facility, and expanded to include Spring Hill Corrections Facility - a men's prison - last month. Jody says she'd be keen to widen the scheme to a juvenile prison.
The Corrections Department tells me that the prisoners who raise puppies are those with not too much time left on their sentence and who are in transition back to life on the outside. The trust ensures that the prisoners meet someone who's living with long-term disability, so they understand what the dog is going to do, and how important their own task is. The plan is that in shaping a dog's behaviour, the prisoners think about their own behaviour; they'll be helping someone on the outside, and be connected to the achievement of something important.
Finally, they'll learn another life skill: saying goodbye. The dog will move on in its role, while the prisoner moves on in his or hers.
But the connection between prisoner and dog doesn't necessarily have to end: Jody encourages the trust's clients to write to the prisoners about how "their" dog is getting on. Once free, the prisoners might even be considered for a continuing voluntary role with the trust's dogs. "As a trust, we'll continue to support them on the outside," says Jody.
The dogs that come out of the prison scheme actually show a higher skill level than those raised in private homes, but Jody points out that prisoners ,"not to put too fine a point on it, have a lot of spare time".
Research and the fullness of time will tell us how statistically successful the scheme is. But to me, it makes a lot of intuitive sense, and I suspect a lot of dog owners will agree. Raising a dog is in itself a character-building course in mature citizenship - you take on the chores, try to form a healthy bond with the dog, then have your efforts and discipline repaid when the dog grows into a safe, well-adjusted pet that returns your commitment twofold. And a lot of dog ownership is about training and retraining yourself. So I can see how just the regular responsibility of raising a dog could benefit certain people whose life has gone wrong and who've lost touch with the skills they need to get by. It might be no help to some people - but neither Corrections nor the trust claims the scheme is some kind of blanket cure-all.
If you still think that's all soft-headed nonsense, then look at Puppies in Prisons as restitution - people contributing something good to a society that they've hurt in some way.
Lots of people other than prisoners are working to raise and train mobility assistance dogs. These include the trust's canine trainers, the puppy raisers, and other volunteers who can't take a dog fulltime, but who might be able to have one for a period of days to help socialise it. Check out the trust - there might be a role for you.
P.S.: On the subject of dog-oriented groups that do wonders, keep an eye out in Wellington tomorrow (Friday) for street appeal collectors for Greyhounds as Pets (GAP). They'll be at the railway station, the airport and in the city centre. Take time to meet one of these beautiful hounds and help out a group that finds homes for retired racing dogs.