Brush Inmates First To Finish Accreditation

What's missing from the article is how CCI is going to help these women get jobs once they are released. I wonder if the facility is doing the foot work to make sure the graduates have some direction or, at least interviews when they get out.

Fort Morgan Times
The first three graduates of a statewide animal-trainer apprenticeship program received their certificates recently at High Plains Correctional Facility in Brush.

Supporters gathered during the graduation ceremony to recognize inmates Susan Ayres, Lee Ayala and Janell Mongahan for completing the program, which is accredited by the U.S. Department of Labor.

Thought they hadn’t yet graduated, five other inmates were also recognized for moving up the ranks in the program. Those honored were Crystal Terry, Dana Brown, Cheyenne Corbett, Anne Ashcraft and Melissa Pace.

“We look for those opportunities to celebrate so that we can acknowledge the efforts of everybody that participated and graduated from these programs,” High Plains Warden Ron Murray told the crowd of inmates and their family members at the ceremony.

The apprenticeship curriculum is established by the Prison Trained K-9 Companion Program, which is offered by Colorado Correctional Industries. High Plains Correctional Facility was the first to offer the program as an accredited apprenticeship, and other Colorado facilities are now following suit.

The program gives qualified inmates an opportunity to gain professional credentials and earn a stipend by training dogs. Each enrolled dog spends about six weeks with an inmate trainer.

“To be in the program and have a dog 24 hours a day, seven days a week is not only a privilege, but it’s also a lot of hard work,” said program Superintendent Debi Stevens, adding that the inmates have to clean up all messes the animals make.

She said the inmates first teach the dogs to quietly sleep while crated in their prison cell and refrain from chewing, barking and whining. The dogs then learn basic manners and obedience, she said.

The inmates also offer specialized training, Stevens said, and they have produced several service dogs for people with disabilities.

Some pet owners pay a fee to have the inmates train their animals. Other dogs come from rescue shelters, and they are adopted to new owners after being trained.

“Our job is to give you guys a job, to teach you a vocation and to operate like a business, which means that we are not tax-funded,” Stevens told program enrollees.