Puppies Behind Bars

Since July 1997, Puppies Behind Bars has been training prison inmates to raise guide dogs for the blind. Currently 23 PBB-raised puppies have become guide dogs, leading their blind users through city streets, around town and down country roads. For the first eighteen months of a puppy's life, he is not intellectually or emotionally mature enough to undergo the rigors of formal guide dog training. A need for puppy raising exists to socialize and teach obedience to these dogs until they are capable of being formally trained. There is currently a shortage of 20,000 guide dogs in the United States. After raising the puppy for approximately 16 months, PBB returns it back to the guide dog school where the dog undergoes formal guide dog training for five to six months. Graduates are then paired with a blind or visually impaired individual and together they begin their journey towards a newfound independence.

These benefits are two-fold as it involves individuals on two sides of the same story — the visually impaired and prison inmates, both having lost their independence through different means. PBB's primary objective is to raise the most highly-trained, healthy, and happy-to-work guide dogs possible, which allows blind individuals a chance at feeling independent, dignified and free. Its second objective is to allow prison inmates to raise guide dogs and begin to contribute to society rather than take from it. Through the PBB puppy-raising process, an inmate's self-esteem skyrockets, a sense of responsibility and patience is instilled and for the first time since incarceration she has to think of another live being before herself. Possibilities become realities as the visually impaired gain independence from their impeccably raised guide dogs while the inmates gain a sense of self-respect, initiative and unconditional love.

The loss of independence resides deeply in the lives of the visually handicapped and is also a harsh reality for those incarcerated because of the crimes they have committed. Through their participation in Puppies Behind Bars, prison inmates work around the clock to raise guide dogs, allowing blind individuals to regain their independence by obtaining impeccably raised guide dogs, while the inmates themselves work towards their own rehabilitation. These two groups of individuals are both allowed to feel human again through the work of Puppies Behind Bars.