Puppies for parole
Joe Denti was incarcerated for a total of 34 years at the Jefferson City Correctional Center—from age 16 to age 50. Now, he’s giving back to his community and its pets as a veterinary technician, made possible by his nearly 15 years as a participant in a restorative justice program called Puppies for Parole. Puppies for Parole is a training program that allows Great Plains SPCA adoptable dogs to receive one-on-one training and socialization from select offenders while living at a Department of Corrections Facility. The program’s dogs learn basic obedience skills, receive plenty of exercise and live with their trainers full time. The program increases the adoptability of the dogs that participate and promotes adoption to a broader community. Since the program started in 2010, more than 6,000 dogs have graduated from training and have been adopted.
Joe Denti became a Puppies for Parole resident dog trainer shortly after the program was introduced to the Missouri Department of Corrections in 2010. And even though Denti is a self-proclaimed dog lover, learning how to properly train dogs was an adjustment. “When we first started, we didn’t really know what we were doing as far as training, not only training but also we were rehabilitating,” Denti says. “A lot of these shelter dogs have issues that we have to try to overcome. It’s easy to adopt a dog that doesn’t have any problems.” each dog enrolled in Puppies for Parole completes an 8-10-week program with the help of their resident dog trainer that follows the framework of the Canine Good Citizen (CGC) exam, You can see the program in the video below.
“It’s about saving a life,” Joe says, “and improving the quality of life not only for the dog but now we get the opportunity to reach out and put that dog in a family that is going to have not only a well-trained family member but also a loving family member.” His time with Puppies for Parole also served as a chance for joe to heal something within himself. “For us as handlers, we’re able to take something that is broken, something that represents to some degree what many of us that were in prison have experienced—brokenness—and put it back together,” Denti says. “With every dog that we work with, we learn something about ourselves, whether it’s an understanding of a relation to what we’ve experienced, or what we’ve caused somebody else to experience,” Denti adds. “And I’m really big on that because some of these dogs represent people that we victimized: the things that I’ve done to another human being, another human being has done to this dog, so it continuously reinforces empathy about what that dog has experienced.” Since his release Joe has been going to Vet tech classes to get certified. “The transition from incarceration to society is somewhat kind of difficult,” Denti says. “I have been blessed in having support from people who care, but at the end of the day, though, my dog Cookie is by my side. She’s helped me through a lot.”
Training Traumas
The sergeant-major growled at the young soldier, “I didn’t see you at camouflage training this morning.”
“Thank you very much, sir.”
As a child I wanted to be a personal trainer, but I ended up as a politician.
At least I still convince absolute idiots that change is being made.
I wanted to finally have a six-pack so girls would like me so I hired a personal trainer.
…I quit after two days because I couldn’t take the ab use.
I don’t think I’m strong enough anymore for my job as a personal trainer.
So I guess I’ll hand in my “too weak” notice.
November 7th Birthdays
1996 – Lorde, 1943 – Joni Mitchell, 1867 – Marie Curie, 1972 – Emily Lesueur
1918 – Billy Graham, 1952 – David Petraeus, 1975 – Marcus Luttrell, 1947 – Johnny Rivers