Incarcerated kids train service dogs
BY AIDAN GRAHAM
Five incarcerated Brooklyn
youth are learning how
to care for and train service
dogs while locked up at a juvenile
detention center in Crown
Heights.
“A lot of the kids come
into the program, and
they’re very emotionally
closed. It’s hard for them to
open up,” said Jeannie Ashford,
a rep with the program.
“The dogs help the kids to
think about their emotions.
They’ve shut down their
emotions, but when they
start training these dogs, it
helps them reconnect with
their emotions — and with
other people.”
The program — run by the
nonprofi t Rising Ground — offers
incarcerated kids an opportunity
to serve their sentence
in a secure, retrofi tted
Crown Heights home as an
alternative to the traditional
prison system.
The facility is currently occupied
by fi ve teenagers, who
work together to teach new
tricks to two pups — a Yorkie
named Simon, and a Pitbull
mix named Jay Mo.
“The dogs are very therapeutic
for the kids,” said Ashford.
“They love it.”
The alt-prison facility and
its four-legged staff helps the
incarcerated kids build social
and life skills while serving
their time, improving their
chances of staying out of trouble
once they’re free to leave,
said Ashford.
“On the fi rst day that the
kids come into the program,
we start planning about what
they’re going to do when they
get out,” she said. “You can’t
just take teens and put them
COURIER L 12 IFE, AUG. 30-SEPT 5, 2019
in adult penitentiaries upstate,
where they are not going
to go to school and they’re
not going to have a chance to
re-enter their communities.”
(Clockwise, from left) The incarcerated youth teach Simon, a Yorkie, to lie
down on command during a training session. Dog trainer Josh Abolt of
Backcountry K-9 Training works with a Pitbull mix named Jay Mo. Rising
Ground staff member Jeze Erazo gives Jay Mo a high-fi ve during a training
session. Photos by Caroline Ourso
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