The Central Michigan Correctional Facility in St. Louis and the animal rescue program known as Dalis to the Rescue get together each week for the "Pawsitive Connections" program at the prison.
The dog-training program pairs up inmate teams of two with a rescue dog to learn basic commands and obedience so the animals can someday be adopted.
Dalis Hitchcock, owner of the rescue shelter in Alma, said her animals learn a lot, but so do their handlers.
"These guys stop me and tell me that this has saved their life," she explained. "These dogs are showing these guys how to love again. The amount of appreciation these guys have for this program is something that I never ever fathomed."
Hitchcock had to work for a year to get this program implemented before getting the green light to start at the level one minimum security prison.
"I go in there weekly to see what the progress is, eight to 12 dogs stay there, we still have meetings with the staff, but now that this has been going on, I think it's going on for three years now," Hitchcock said.
"We've got most of the wrinkles kind of ironed out. Staff is amazing over there on helping me tweak what's going on because they're inside the prison where I'm outside. So I don't really know what's really going on unless communication is really, really Strong. So we have a great team. We communicate daily on what's going on," she said.
The prisoners learn how to be patient and express love to the dogs by training them, Hitchcock said, and that sense of care helps create a bond between the inmates and the dogs.
Hitchcock said the number one question she gets asked is if she gets scared to go into the prison alone. She said her answer is always a confident "no."
"Right when the inmates meet their first dog and they pick these dogs up and they cuddle them, they rock them and look into their dogs eyes, and the smiles," Hitchcock said. "Those dogs wagging their tails, it's something that I can't describe."
She said after leaving prison, some former inmates have even adopted the dogs they've trained and some even go back to help teach prisoners how to train dogs. Hitchcock explained that these dogs have brought love back into the lives of these men who at one point felt society had abandoned them
