TYLER, Texas — Behind the fences and razor wire at an East Texas prison, people might be surprised by what they see -- inmates training dogs as part of a program benefiting both the animals and humans.
"What we’re doing here and what the guys are doing here is extremely important to both the community and to them," warden John Cochran said.
Rusk County Pets Alive and Billy Moore Correctional Center partnered together to create the Rusk County Second Chance Initiative. The program helps makes dogs more suitable and ready for adoption, while giving inmates employable skills.
Cochran said the dogs are assigned to two inmates and they live in the housing areas with the inmates. The inmates take care of their four-legged friends 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
Jamie Fenton-Stearns, director of the program, said she's passionate about the program and enjoys giving back to the community. The mission of Rusk County Second Chance Initiative also hits home for her. She was sentenced to five years in prison for a DWI conviction and ended up serving about two years.
"The last year I was there, I was lucky enough to find out that there was a program about dogs at the unit I was in and so I enrolled and got to become a dog trainer. When I got out it gave me a skill, and it's very difficult for people with felonies to find a job," Fenton-Stearns said.
So she knows first hand that this kind of program doesn't just benefit the dogs.
"I teach them how to teach classes, I teach them how to look at behavioral problems, but ultimately I’m teaching them how to love again. So many of them have been broken and a dog is what’s saving them right now," Fenton-Stearns said.
Shawn Wright, one of the inmate dog trainers, said he has been in and out of the prison system all of his life.
"This is the first program that really set me down and I really can think about like, ‘man I’ve been doing it wrong my whole life," Wright said.
Wright has trained multiple dogs, and he is a real testament that the impact is felt both ways.
"It has taught me life lessons, all in just spending time with a dog. It has just helped me out a lot," Wright said.