Corrections_Today_Winter_2024-2025_Vol.86_No.4

caring for their new puppy. The residents look forward to seeing these pictures and videos. During their stay, the residents care for and social ize the puppies to increase their chances of adoptability. The puppies sleep in their own area (there is a space fashioned in both units to house the puppies at nights while the residents sleep) but the puppies remain in the dayroom with the residents throughout the majority of the day. For example, in Solutions, women have group in the morning and in the afternoon and the puppies remain in the group with the women. The puppies are first removed from their sleeping area at 6:30 a.m. and while they may return periodically throughout the day (i.e., during chow), they do not go back in until 10 p.m., which is final lock-in for everyone. To date, the facility has fostered approximately 30 litters; all but one has been adopted and many have been adopted by WCDOC staff. While some training may be done (i.e., teaching to sit, newspaper training, leash walking, etc.) depending on the puppy’s emotional state when they arrive (i.e. res cues may be very timid based on trauma that occurred prior to their transport), the primary focus of the program is caretaking. The caretakers have shifts and during their shifts they are responsible for mop ping and cleaning, bathing the pups if needed, feeding them, taking them outside when an officer is available, and providing them with lots of love. The goal is to build trust between the dog and the human, which may have been violated when the dog was living on the street. Caretakers, who may have attachment issues, feelings of mistrust and may have been homeless or suffered abuse/ trauma prior to their incarceration, often resonate with the stories of the rescues. The two have commonalities, which is what helps to forge their bond and provides the caretaker with responsibility and purpose as they learn to take care of someone more vulnerable than themselves. The director holds weekly staff meetings with both groups of caretakers and while there is not a formalized clinical component, the director often utilizes the staff meeting to process emotional issues with the caretakers, such as going home, caretaking, homeless ness, wanting to belong, etc. The rescues are an excellent way to open communication with the caretakers and to begin to process some of their trauma but to do so in a very safe and relaxed way. Usually, the program only fosters puppies. However, the women recently fostered

Photo courtesy The Westchester County Department of Correction

a pregnant female, who remained at the facility until she went into labor on August 8, 2024. She delivered at the shelter to ensure the safety of her and her pups. By the end of August, she will return to the women’s unit with her puppy to continue the fostering process (only one of the two pups survived). This has been a great oppor tunity to talk to the women about topics like pregnancy, parenting, loss, having to make difficult caretaking deci sions, such as when a child is being raised by someone other than the biological mother, etc. This opportunity has been a positive experience for the women caretakers, as well as WCDOC staff. Method Canine caretakers (n=44) were asked to voluntarily participate in pre and posttest interviewing, which averaged approximately 30 minutes, to assess program experience after four weeks of program completion. In order to increase the validity of subjects’ responses and provide a fuller understanding of their experiences, both quantitative and qualitative measures were employed, examining variables such as stress, anxiety, depression (measured through the DASS 21 Scale), self-esteem (measured through the 10 item Guttman self-esteem scale), self-efficacy (measured through the General Self-Efficacy Scale), self-control (measured through the Tangney Self-Control scale), happiness (measured through a subjective happiness scale), empathy (mea sured through the multidimensional Emotional empathy

Winter 2024-2025 | Corrections Today

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