{"id":30150,"date":"2018-05-31T13:27:12","date_gmt":"2018-05-31T18:27:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/?p=30150"},"modified":"2018-05-31T13:27:12","modified_gmt":"2018-05-31T18:27:12","slug":"prison-program-that-teaches-women-to-train-unwanted-dogs-upgrades-after-years-of-delays","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/2018\/05\/31\/prison-program-that-teaches-women-to-train-unwanted-dogs-upgrades-after-years-of-delays\/","title":{"rendered":"Prison program that teaches women to train unwanted dogs upgrades after years of delays"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"attachment_30158\"  class=\"wp-caption module image aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1920px;\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"wp-image-30158 size-large\" src=\"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/files\/2018\/05\/MB-Dogs-2-1920x1280.jpg\" alt=\"Inmate Lacey Wallace poses with her dog trainee, McAlester, on the yard in Mabel Bassett Correctional Center.\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1280\" srcset=\"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/files\/2018\/05\/MB-Dogs-2-1920x1280.jpg 1920w, https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/files\/2018\/05\/MB-Dogs-2-500x333.jpg 500w, https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/files\/2018\/05\/MB-Dogs-2-768x512.jpg 768w, https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/files\/2018\/05\/MB-Dogs-2-150x100.jpg 150w, https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/files\/2018\/05\/MB-Dogs-2-300x200.jpg 300w, https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/files\/2018\/05\/MB-Dogs-2-620x413.jpg 620w, https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/files\/2018\/05\/MB-Dogs-2-1620x1080.jpg 1620w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\" \/><\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-media-credit\">Quinton Chandler \/ StateImpact Oklahoma<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-caption-text\">McAlester is the seventh dog Lacey Wallace has trained for the Guardian Angels program at Mabel Bassett Correctional Center.<\/p>\n<\/div><p>A new dog-training facility opened this week at Oklahoma\u2019s largest women-only prison.<\/p><p>Corrections officials and women enrolled in the Guardian Angels program at Mabel Bassett Correctional Center in McCloud have waited four years for upgrades to the facility, which now has a designated building, a new kennel and exercise area with obstacles \u2014 and a new grooming area and a walking path.<\/p><p>Previously, dogs were trained on the prison\u2019s bare yard and anywhere else program officials could find space.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p><p>The prison program teaches women responsibility and life skills by training undisciplined, unwanted dogs for adoption. The dogs learn basic commands and manners potential owners want in a well-behaved pet. Some of the dogs are also trained as service animals.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p><p>Lisa Bennett, the program\u2019s coordinator, says the women learn skills they can use for jobs outside of prison. She says many of the women see themselves as the \u201cthrowaway(s)\u201d of society and find kinship with animals that no one wanted.<\/p><p>Construction of the training facility started in 2014, but labor and funding setbacks delayed its completion until earlier this month. The Department of Corrections finished the project with help from Oklahoma CareerTech.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The new facility gives the program a designated building, a new kennel and exercise area with obstacles \u2014 and a new grooming area and a walking path.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":201,"featured_media":30157,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[18],"tags":[223,874,873,875],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30150"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/201"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=30150"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30150\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":30163,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30150\/revisions\/30163"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/30157"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=30150"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=30150"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=30150"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}