Who is the Colorado Criminal Justice Reform Coalition?

Our mission is to reverse the trend of mass incarceration in Colorado. We are a coalition of nearly 7,000 individual members and over 100 faith and community organizations who have united to stop perpetual prison expansion in Colorado through policy and sentence reform.

Our chief areas of interest include drug policy reform, women in prison, racial injustice, the impact of incarceration on children and families, the problems associated with re-entry and stopping the practice of using private prisons in our state.

If you would like to be involved please go to our website and become a member.


Saturday, November 03, 2007

Bad Dogs Go To Jail

DENVER - Buddy has eaten lawn furniture. He has eaten the decorative lights set up in the backyard of the McGrigg's home.

So it was hardly a surprise when Kim McGrigg happened upon Buddy not too long ago and saw him helping himself to nearly a dozen freshly-baked cookies.

"He's just hard to handle," she told 9NEWS.

"Buddy's pretty much done everything destructive you can think of," added her son Charlie.

On Thursday, Kim and Charlie did the only thing they could think of when it came to Buddy's future - they opted for jail time.

We're hardly joking. A few minutes later she put Buddy in her car and wheeled him down to the Denver Women's Correctional Facility.

"C'mon Buddy let's go," she told him.

"(Buddy's) kind of figured out how to push their buttons, and by the time he goes home he will be a totally different animal," Debi Stevens said, shortly after Buddy arrived.

Stevens runs the K-9 Prison Trained Companion Program. Started in 2002, the program now sends dogs to prisons all over Colorado.

Most are sent from shelters where their fate is all but certain.

For $400, however, individual dog owners can send their misbehaving pooches into the program. Trained inmates will then oversee a discipline program for the next month that will, if all goes well, transform even the worst cookie eaters into models of restraint.

"We have dogs that when people come and pick them up say 'I can't believe my dog can do that,'" said Stevens.

There is often times a waiting list for the program. Stevens says they're looking into expanding it into additional prisons in the future because she says it's working so well.

"It teaches (inmates) life skills they might have missed out on," said Stevens.
9 News