Assessing the Puppies in Prison Program

At the Toledo Correctional Institute in Toledo, Ohio, offenders have the chance to be
matched with a canine friend in the Puppies in Prison program. For the first year of their lives,
assistance dogs are paired with and trained by inmates who keep the puppies in their cell with
them twenty four hours a day. After their first year, the puppies are placed with a more
traditional foster family. Offenders are taught how to train the animals through classes occurring
twice a week and work with the puppies on socialization and basic obedience skills. While the
program certainly has its benefits and is shown to help the offenders in certain ways, it does not
necessarily meet all of the principles of effective intervention.
Offenders are chosen to participate in the program based on a few criteria. They must
have good reports from prior job assignments and not have a history of repeated violence. They
also cannot have committed crimes against animals or any sexual crimes. While these points are
certainly crucial to ensuring the safety of the puppies, the program does not specifically target
offenders at a high risk for recidivism. Determining who to target is the first principle of
effective intervention, and while Puppies in Prison may not necessarily need to target only high
risk offender to achieve its goals, the program does not meet this first principle due to its
acceptance of all risk levels.
The second principle of effective intervention is the need principle. This principle
addresses what aspects of the offender should be targeted for treatment. Puppies in Prison is
modeled after the Indiana Canine Assistant and Adolescent Network (ICAAN) program, which
has been shown to have a number of benefits. These include 97% of offenders displaying
improvement in empathy and lessened depression, 87% of offenders showing improvement in
positive communication skills, and an overall improvement in behavior in areas where puppies
are assigned to live. Empathy, depression, and communication skills are certainly dynamic risk
factors (which are the ideal criminogenic needs to target). Learning how to empathize may lead
to less antisocial behavior since it means the offender will better be able to relate to and
understand human beings, and better communication skills may mean that the offender will more
often be able to avoid confrontation. Therefore, addressing empathy and communication skills
may have an effect on the offenders antisocial personality or even their antisocial
beliefs/attitudes/values, two of the big four criminogenic needs. Depression, while not the
most important need to target due to its variable nature in an offender, certainly falls under the
mental/physical health need. This suggests that, while it may not address criminogenic needs as
intensively as another program that is more structured and designed to do so, Puppies in Prison
has the right idea for the second principle of effective intervention and seems to be quite
successful in these goals.
The third and final principle of effective intervention, the responsivity principle, specifies
how risk factors should be targeted. This factor can be split into two subcategories: general
responsivity and specific responsivity. General responsivity means that behavior should be
changed through conditioning, shaping, and rehearsal. Puppies in Prison does not address this
principle directly. While offenders may have their behavior changed during their care for the
puppy, it is not necessarily due to Puppies in Prison programming. Classes are geared more
toward teaching the offender how to train a puppy and does not actually address the offenders
behavior or needs. Instead, the offender may learn to empathize independent of the program.
Specific responsivity means that programs should be individualized for offenders and staff
members should be matched appropriately to offenders. Again, Puppies in Prison does not
address this factor, as classes are generalized and not tailored individually to offenders and
teachers are not chosen based on how well they interact with an offender. Because Puppies in
Prison does not address general nor specific responsivity, it fails to meet the third principle of
effective intervention.
Puppies in Prison is an excellent program that has some positive effects on offenders, and
just as importantly, gives puppies a home and training for the first year of their life. The question
of whether the program can reduce recidivism, however, can be answered by the fact that it fails
to meet two of the three principles of effective intervention. Puppies in Prison, while addressing
a few important dynamic risk factors, does not treat offenders in the most effective way and does
not choose offenders based on their risk of recidivism. Because of this, Puppies in Prison is
unlikely to reduce recidivism.