For pretty much as long as I can remember I have wanted a dog and throughout much of my college years the famous phrase from my mother: "you can have one when you move out" reverberated through my head.
Well, in December I decided that the time was right to adopt a dog. As previously mentioned, this whole process was something that I had been anticipating for much of my adolescent years and so when the time came to adopt a dog I had it pretty well planned out.
The dog that I got was from the Humane Society in Boise and was enrolled in a program called the Inmate Dog Alliance Project of Idaho. I will admit, when I first read the line in the dog's description that said "This dog is currently training in the Inmate Dog Alliance Project of Idaho," I didn't think much of it.
To my surprise the dog was very well trained, knowing all the basic commands including sit, lay down, roll over and stay. It wasn't until this week that I put two and two together for why my dog came equipped with such an uncanny array of talents.
On Monday, March 9, I ventured out to the Idaho Correctional Center south of Boise to photograph the 12 dogs that are currently enrolled in this IDAPI Program. Very quickly I came to realize that at one time my dog, Buddy, was one of these puppies in cell block B.
It was an incredible experience to be able to step inside the heavily fortified walls of the ICC and see these offenders letting little puppies lick them in the face. The general sentiment from the inmates who I spoke with was that these dogs were changing their lives.
"I've seen everything from a garden variety burglar to a murderer, down on the floor with a dog licking his face," said one inmate. "That's what we live for, because there isn't that much to live for in here."
Check out a slideshow I produced by directing your mouse here.
1 comment:
I LOVE this program and wish we had something similar in our area. Thanks for sharing the story!
Post a Comment