Kershaw County inmates training service dogs

(Kershaw, SC) – Every Monday morning the gates of the Kershaw Correctional Institution are opened for a special set of visitors.

Each week four Labrador retriever puppies enter the facility to work with the inmates.

“We can’t wait. If we had our way about it, we’d have them seven days a week, weekend and all during the week, if we had our way about it. We love them and we love training with them,” said Keith, an inmate at the medium-security facility.

Prison rules prohibit us from identifying him.

He’s participating in a program sponsored by Palmetto Animal Assisted Life Services (or PAALS) that trains dogs to help people with physical disabilities.

PAALS founder Jennifer Rogers say working with the inmates has its advantages.

“Most of our people that train the dogs are volunteers, but like a lot of people, especially with all the economic challenges our society is having, have to work full-time, so they don’t have the kind of time that our inmates here have,” she said.

Rogers says inmates spend a few hours each day teaching the dogs hand and voice commands.

The dogs also learn to turn on light switches, open and close doors and pick up items, such as pens and cell phones.

Prison officials say the dogs are helping to teach the inmates patience and responsibility and the inmates say they find the work to be very rewarding.

“It’s one of the best feelings you can have, because like I say you know you’re helping somebody else, somebody that really needs help that’s not able to help their self,” said Keith.

The dogs live and train with inmates during the week and spend the weekends living with foster families.

Rogers says many people are surprised to learn inmates are training the service dogs.

“There are people that are waiting for dogs from our program that actually have said to me, ‘I really hope mine comes from the prison program.’ I think they understand that these dogs are changing lives long before they ever get to them and that’s really what our program is about.”

She says she thinks the program has been very successful.

Next month the dogs will graduate to a more advanced training program and next year PAALS will introduce a new set of puppies to be trained by the Kershaw inmates.