A doctor may heal the body, but an animal can heal the soul. Owning a pet has lots of benefits. Pets are not only our companions but often our healers. Their therapeutic power can help people with depression and anxiety, feel less lonely, improve our mood and even decrease blood pressure. It has been discovered recently that pets can even help convicted offenders.
In 2015 in Indiana, Animal Protection League started a program in Pendleton Correctional Facility called F.O.R.W.A.R.D. The idea behind this initiative is to take cats from a shelter and place them in the correctional facility. That way inmates can take care of them. The program quickly proved to be beneficial for both cats and inmates.
Many cats who end up at the shelter, have been abused and mistreated, which left them unable to properly socialize with humans.
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These cats don’t trust people and have lower chances of being adopted. This program can help the shelter cats find a forever home after they receive patient and loving care even if it’s in prison.
The prisoners take care of the cats. They feed them, clean after them and groom them, so the animals can become more social and trusting towards humans.
However, the program is beneficial because the cats are not the only ones who benefit from the program. Inmates in the prison also gain wonderful experience as they learn how to care for a living creature – the shelter cats.
“I’ve had offenders tell me when they got an animal, it was the first time they can remember they were allowing themselves to care about something, to love something,” said the director of APL, Maleah Stringer.
“It teaches them responsibility, how to interact in a group using non-violent methods to solve problems and gives them the unconditional love of a pet – something many of these inmates have never known,” the APL writes on their website.
However, one particular animal in the prison program made people quite angry. After the release of Death Row 2018 which revolves around the inmates of Indiana State Prison, people said that inmates convicted for monstrous crimes shouldn’t be allowed to keep cats in their cells. Many of the people don’t think that inmates should be trusted with the pets.
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