Inside Dixon Correctional Institute in Jackson, La., lives are being saved. The state prison is home to Pen Pals Inc. Dog and Cat Shelter and Adoption Center. It is a happy place, where dogs are walked and played with every day, and cats get lap time from the inmates who feed and groom them.
"Something good came out of Katrina here," said Master Sgt. Wayne Aucoin, who manages the no-kill shelter.
After Hurricane Katrina, when Lamar-Dixon in Gonzales was inundated with animals rescued from the floodwaters, administrators at DCI offered to take in the overflow. They set up a makeshift clinic at the prison and trained inmates to care for the animals.
"We had 250 to 300 homeless dogs and cats and a couple of geese here," Aucoin said.
From that sad beginning, an agreement was forged between the Humane Society of the United States, the LSU School of Veterinary Medicine in Baton Rouge, and DCI: HSUS would give DCI a $600,000 grant to build an emergency shelter on the prison grounds that could be used during any state disaster, plus a permanent clinic and shelter where LSU vet students could get experience, inmates would care for the animals, and homeless pets in East Feliciana Parish could be redeemed.
"East Feliciana Parish didn't have an animal shelter," Aucoin said.
The first time the emergency shelter was activated was for Hurricane Gustav in August 2008. The clinic opened two years later.
"We opened on Aug. 29, 2010, the five-year anniversary of Katrina," Aucoin said.
The 4,200-square-foot clinic has a surgery suite and an education area, plus room for 60 dogs and 34 cats. The 9,450-square-foot pavilion area can house as many as 300 animals during disasters. Most of the time it's used as a holding area when dogs first come into the shelter. It also has a large play yard where the dogs are walked and let off lead for "jail-break time."
"This was all built with inmate labor," Aucoin said. "That's how we were able to make $600,000 go so far."
I first heard about the shelter from Dr. Alissa Whitney, a veterinarian at Animal Medical Center in Covington.
"I learned about prison programs in vet school, and I was very taken with the idea," she said. "There was no downside to it."
She happened to meet Col. John Smith -- who has worked in corrections for 23 years and is president of Pen Pals -- at a police dog show, and he asked her if she'd be interested in volunteering at his new shelter.
"I jumped at the opportunity," she said. "I told him, 'I'll do anything you want.'"
Once a month Whitney makes the 2-hour drive to Jackson on her day off to volunteer at the clinic. Often, Jennifer Williams-Smith, a Registered Veterinary Technician at Animal Medical Center, goes with her to assist.
"I love coming here," Williams-Smith said.
I've made three trips with Whitney in the past few months, and every time I go I'm impressed, not just by Smith's and Aucoin's dedication to the program and the animals, but by the inmates who work in the clinic.
"They really want to learn," Whitney said. "Their library is growing."
Their job is sometimes messy, smelly and tedious. They clean up after the dogs and cats, bathe them, and check out fecal samples. But they love what they do. They carry around vet tech books and ask Whitney endless questions. They study dosage charts and read up on heartworms. They take their jobs seriously.
"The guys are very good surgery preps," Whitney said.
Jason Broom, 36, of Chalmette says he "begged his way into the program." He is one of six inmates -- all nonviolent offenders -- who work in the shelter full-time.
"It's nice to be able to come here and bond with the dogs and cats," he said. "It's a way to expand my knowledge and love for animals."
Broom and the other inmates who work in the clinic have received certificates of excellence from the LSU shelter medicine program and are eager to get more training. Whitney, who is an instructor for Northshore Technical Community College in Slidell, is hoping to figure out a way for them to take the courses necessary to become Registered Veterinary Technicians, which would give them a chance at a good job when they get out of Dixon.
"I'm trying to see if there are any grants out there, but so far I haven't found any for prisoners," she said.
Jomo Carter, 33, who started working in the shelter 10 months ago, is interested in becoming a vet tech. He grew up in Kenner with lots of dogs and tries to absorb everything he can at the clinic.
"Just to work with Dr. Whitney and the other vets who come here and to learn from the other guys, that's been a great experience for me," he said.
Carter, in prison on a drug-related charge, is scheduled to get out in 2016.
"I came from the streets of New Orleans," he said. "I'm sad to say I had to start here, but this is a new beginning for me."
Most weekends, Aucoin and volunteers hold adoption events to get the shelter animals into loving homes. They go to the market in Zachery every month and have set up in front of the Zachary library. And in April they got five pets adopted at the Spring Rodeo at Angola.
"We'll pretty much go anywhere they'll have us," Smith said.
Most of the dogs brought into the shelter are mutts, and many are large -- the kind that aren't easy to place. Smith described a comical black basset mix that was adopted as "a dog put together by a committee that never met."
He calls Aucoin "the closer."
"I think people will take a dog just to get Wayne to leave them alone," he joked.
Aucoin is so dedicated to finding homes for the pets that when he was asked to bring a dog to display at the LSU Vet School Open House in February, he declined.
"I wanted him to go to an adoption day instead," he said. "I wasn't going to use him as a prop."
Last Monday, with assistance from Williams-Smith and the inmates, Whitney spayed Erin, a bouncy min-pin mix who loves to chase tennis balls. She was one of several dogs brought to the shelter from Angola in March. At the time, she was pregnant. Now, her five puppies have been adopted, and someone wants her, too. So six more dogs have found new homes.
For inmate Ronnie Beechler, the best thing about working in the shelter is knowing the dogs and cats he takes care of will be safe.
"I volunteered in the emergency shelter after Hurricane Gustav, and when we learned that most of the animals that came here would be put down when they went back to other shelters, that was a real tear-jerker," he said. "They were all lovable, so it was really difficult to hear."
He was upset recently when Tika, a chihuahua-mix who considered herself the shelter guard dog, died of congestive heart failure caused by heartworms.
"She was so vivacious," he said. "But somebody didn't give her the care she deserved. She came here with so many heartworms we couldn't save her."
Beechler, 41, of Metairie, has been at DCI for seven years on a burglary charge. In all that time, he has never stepped outside the razor wire, but in November, he'll be free.
He says he has no regrets.
"What I gained out of being here I couldn't replace," he said. "I really have enjoyed working with the animals, and I probably never would have figured out what I wanted to do if I hadn't been here."
He plans to take classes at Northshore Technical Community College and become a Registered Veterinary Technician. He also hopes to volunteer at a shelter and do sketches of the animals to help them find homes.
"You can change if you decide to turn your life around," he said. "I'm an example of that."
Smith says the changes he sees in the inmates are heartening.
"A lot of them have probably been treated like they couldn't do shit," he said. "They develop patience and a feeling of self-worth here."
He likes knowing that the dogs and cats give them a reason to get up in the morning, a reason to go to work.
"I just like the idea it helps them," he said. "I like the idea they've got a shot at making it when they get out."
Pen Pals Inc , a nonprofit shelter, must raise $90,000 a year for operating expenses. No tax dollars are used. The cost to adopt a pet from Pen Pals is $40. To learn more about adopting a pet or to make a donation, go to the Pen Pals Inc. Animal Shelter Facebook page or call 225.634.6051. Because the shelter is inside the prison, you must make an appointment ahead of time if you want to see the adoptable animals. Donations can be mailed to Pen Pals Inc., Post Office Box 788, Jackson, La 70748.?
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