OROFINO, Idaho – “You can get a little jaded and you don’t always see the positives that are going on outside of here.”
Some of the state’s highest offenders are serving their time at the Orofino Correctional Institution and with around 500 inmates, different prison gangs, and the cinderblocks that confine you, it can be hard to find hope.
But there is one shimmer of light on the southeast end of this facility. A program that launched nearly ten years ago is inspiring inmates to seek change in their lives and that very same program is changing the lives of hundreds of people across North Idaho, who need emotional support.
The program is called PAWS or Patrolling Animals With Skills.
Dog trainers take in unwanted pets, and transfer them to the prison, where they undergo an eight-week training.
The dogs come out, virtually ready to serve a veteran or someone who is in need of an emotional support dog.
“From the moment I got it was different than other facilities and what I had heard about,” David Cevallos, an inmate said.
“Even though it’s in a prison, you can still create a very positive atmosphere,” Warden Terema Carlin said.
And that’s just what the warden has done through PAWS.
“I was really having issues getting on board with it until I started seeing people being successful,” Sgt. Jason Lichti, who now oversees the program, said.
The program teaches inmates in good behavior how to train dogs for emotional support.
“Really it’s about wanting to find a change. I heard about this program when I was in a Boise facility,” , an inmate, said.
Alfaro has only been at the Orofino facility for two years. He transferred from a Boise facility. He’s got around 17 more years to serve, but he says he wouldn’t want to serve his time at any other facility.
“I’ve struggled with mental health issues and stuff like that. And being here has helped give me the skills to get off my medications and I haven’t been on my meds since I’ve been on the dog program and I haven’t had an issue,” Alfaro said.
Travis McCulloch and David Cevallos, who are also inmates, both have similar stories to Alfaro.
“I heard what they were doing up here, what the program Carlin had going up here and so I wrote her a letter asking if she’d bring me back up here so I could be a part of this dog program,” Travis McCulloch said.
“Had heard about the opportunities up in Orofino. I didn’t think that I would be granted the opportunity to come up here,” David Cevallos said.
He was and all three have been participating in PAWS ever since.
“There’s a primary and a secondary for every dog. And so they have to learn how to work with at least one other person,” Warden Carlin said.
She says this program highlights teamwork. It teaches the inmates skills that they can use after they get out.
“It’s almost like a vocational program in a lot of ways because there are places to go that you can take those skills and at least get a job,” Warden Carlin said.
One of those places is Faithful Fields. They partner with the correctional facility and provide dogs to the program.
“We want to help anybody who can’t necessarily afford a service dog or an emotional support animal because the cost can be anywhere from $10,000 to $50,000,” Richie Alaniz, executive director of Faithful Fields, said.
Alaniz takes abandoned dogs to his Coeur d’Alene facility and trains them just enough to enter the PAWS program.
“Some of these guys could be violent offenders or whatever, but it’s helped them tone down. It’s helped them realize that life is something different,” Alaniz said.
A life that is worth doing good.
“That’s what we’re here about, right, change. If we can see that change in a dog, we strive to make that change in ourselves. Help our brothers change in that way too,” Cevallos said.
And change the lives of future dog owners. Geraldine Schneider, a North Idaho resident, got an emotional support dog from Faithful Fields.
Her husband recently passed and she had fostered a teenager who was going through a very rough time.
“Horrific story that she had. That to even sleep in a bed. I get emotional with this one. For her to even sleep in a bed was a tough situation for her. But throughout the four months of being with me and my dog sleeping with her, completely changed her. Completely changed her,” Schneider said.
And the dog changed Schneider’s life too – so much so that she’s now volunteering at Faithful Fields, helping people who are feeling the way she once did.
“My friend once told me that any experience in life is going to change. It’s up to you if it changes you for the better or the worse and this dog program is what I’m going to use to change me for the better,” Cevallos said.
A wall filled with painted collars represents an inmate, who’s gone through the PAWS program and has been released.
“This time will eventually come to an end. Our goal is to be able to get to that wall and be able to go back into the community,” Cevallos said.
Inspiration for these inmates, to one day, get out and change the world just like the dogs that they train.
“And it warms my heart that they’re gonna go be adopted and live an awesome life,” Alfaro said.
Not one cent of taxpayer dollars goes to this program. It is strictly donation-funded.
If you would like to help out Faithful Fields, you can donate directly to this link.
