Inmates in Wisconsin train service dogs

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Inmates in Wisconsin play role in training service dogs

Over the years, Twin Cities non-profit Can Do Canines has changed more than 800 lives, by matching service dogs with people in need. But many don’t know the story of the dog trainers working behind the scenes to make that possible.

Can Do Canines has inserted 60 to 100 dogs in seven prisons across Minnesota and Wisconsin. Program coordinator Dyan Larson goes to the facilities once a week to teach the inmates how to train the dogs. Then the inmates return to their cells to teach 70 commands to each puppy. “It’s like living with a roommate and a dog, in a room the size of your bathroom,” Larson said.

In the end, the dogs are able to pick up items, open doors, or even get help during an emergency. “And if you see the life that the dogs have here, if I was a dog I would totally want to be here,” Larson said.

Around 46 inmates at Jackson Correctional Institution deserve credit for the program’s success. To get into the program, the men had to pass an extensive screening. But once accepted, they credit the dogs with removing tension among inmates, and inspiring a newfound sense of purpose, in an otherwise monotonous life.

After six months, the dogs move on and eventually are matched with a person with special needs; from families impacted by autism, diabetes, seizures, hearing loss, or immobility. Can Do Canines is the engine making it all happen. The New Hope non-profit provides dogs to clients free of charge, and that is made possible, in large part, by of the volunteer work of inmates.

Catch Up Quick 

✈️ The spring break travel season is shaping up to be the busiest in years, as the Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport reports record-setting passenger volume during the month of March. A spokesperson with the Metropolitan Airport Commission told FOX 9 that during the month of March MSP recorded its five busiest days since the start of the pandemic.

👮 Six people were hurt Sunday evening after shots rang out in a Brooklyn Center parking lot.

🐴 A summer horse camp in central Minnesota has settled a lawsuit scheduled for trial Monday, that claimed the camp was negligent in allowing a sexual predator to work among children and teenagers. Scott Fortier, 44, was a senior counselor, activities director, and volunteer at Circle R Ranch in Long Prairie for more than two decades, until he was convicted of state and federal sex crimes in 2016 and 2018.

Free prom dress charity Project Prom helping budget-conscious Minnesota families

Prom season is coming fast and a local charity is trying to make sure money isn’t a reason for girls not to go.

Project Prom is literally giving away dresses.

Whatever color or style or size, the young ladies in a Maple Grove showroom won’t pay anything for the dresses they choose.

They’d cost between $100 and $800 out in the wild, but Project Prom collected almost 4,000 of them as donations to give away.

“There is a plethora of them out there,” said Project Prom founder Jeni Asaba. “Whether it’s women who have them in their closets that they were worn once, a lot of stores just don’t sell them season to season. So we’re trying to get those into the hands of teens who can really use them.”

Asaba founded Project Prom in New York because she saw the huge cost as a barrier to fun, especially for low-income families.

She brought it to Minnesota in 2010.

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