California State Prison inmates raise service dogs as part of rehabilitation program

By Max Darrow

The California Health Care Facility (CHCF), a state prison in Stockton, is among the numerous California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (CDCR) facilities that are leaning into the rehabilitative component of incarceration, so once people are out of prison, they stay out.

One of those efforts at CHCF is the BARK Program, where certain incarcerated individuals get a chance to raise future service dogs for people with disabilities, in partnership with the organization Canine Companions.

“Incarcerated persons who are interested in raising a service dog have to go through a huge vetting process that we have here,” said Jasmin Gin, Community Resources Manager. “Rehabilitation is a huge thing for CDCR. We want to make sure they’re super serious about giving back to the community. They do that by raising the service dogs that we have here.”

Canine Companions’ service dogs change the lives of people with disabilities on a daily basis. Organization leaders say this program takes it a step further, as it helps the inmates with rehabilitation.

“Every incarcerated person who’s been through this program has paroled, and none of them have come back,” Gin said. “The dog itself doesn’t care what the person does. They just have all this love for someone. Some of these guys have never had love their whole lives.”

Isaac Sinsun is an inmate at CHCF, who is 10 years into a 25-to-life sentence for murder. He won’t be eligible for parole for almost seven years.

“This is an opportunity for me to give back to the community that I took from,” he said. “I was out there terrorizing my community. I was taking. I was selfish. I was greedy. I couldn’t see past my own selfish needs. This opportunity allows me to give back to my community and be selfless for once.”

About 96% of incarcerated individuals will one day return to their communities, according to data from the Prison Policy Initiative.

Sinsun said there is nothing that can change the past. But this program allows him to contribute to society in a positive way, providing something good for humans he’ll likely never meet.

“We’ve made horrible mistakes. But we’re redeemable. There are people here in prison who are genuinely remorseful for what they did,” he said. “I lost myself. I really lost myself to my gang lifestyle, to my criminal thinking. When I started to be able to understand that I could actually, give back and be selfless, I found myself again. I found my humanity. I understood what compassion, empathy, responsibility, accountability, really meant.”

Sinsun and his fellow puppy raisers, there are nine in total, take a lot of pride in their job to get these dogs prepared to be service animals.

“We actually get to give back,” he said. “We get to give our time to help somebody else in need for the rest of their life.”

Canine Companions places the service dogs with people with disabilities free of charge, and they will follow up with them for life.