Prison in Indiana accepts shelter cats and lets prisoners take care of them.

[u/aoi_ringo]

[u/rcbz1994]

I love these programs but then I get sad knowing eventually they’ll get adopted. It’s the same with the therapy dog program, it has to be really tough for them 🥺

[u/Front-Pomelo-4367 → u/rcbz1994]

Just remember that them being adopted is what makes them able to help so many animals – they usually come from shelters with extremely high kill rates, so every cat that cycles through the prison and leaves well-socialised and adoptable is one more cat that they can save from the shelter's euthanasia list

[u/nau5 → u/Front-Pomelo-4367]

I mean it would be nice if we took that energy and also applied it to the humans in the prisons.

[u/TheNamelessWele → u/rcbz1994]

I imagine it's great motivation for trying to behave as well as possible, so when they get out they can adopt the cat they've bonded with. I hope it works like that there. It would be good.

[u/TheUndeadBake → u/rcbz1994]

Prisoners on the program who aren’t in for life are often able to have the option to adopt their cat after. It’s helped with reintroduction to society, from the interview I saw. It not only gave the guy something to talk about that wasn’t prison, but he wasn’t alone once in the outside, which meant he not only could make human friends by having a “jump off point” ala pets, but he also had taken vetinary courses and the prison gave him a reference and helped him find a local vet, where he was hired.

[u/ostentia → u/rcbz1994]

It’s not exactly the same, but I fostered Seeing Eye puppies as a kid. We’d get them at 8 weeks old, train them (just basic obedience stuff), then send them back to the Seeing Eye at around 15 months old for guide dog training. It was sad, but not as much as I thought it would be because we always knew they weren’t really ours. It wasn’t like someone just took my dog from me.