BALTIMORE — A few months ago, Warrior Canine Connection partnered with the Maryland Department of Public Safety and Correctional Services to bring a service dog training program to the maximum-security Jessup Correctional Institution.
It is a pilot program that has had an impact on the lives of incarcerated veterans and will eventually change the lives of veterans who receive service dogs.
The Warrior Canine Connection is a program one inmate says gave him a new sense of purpose. It’s a first-of-its-kind program in the state that uses inmates to train service dogs for wounded veterans.
“It gives me a lot of purpose to know that I am somehow changing history, helping other veterans who wouldn’t be getting help no other way other than a service dog,” Warriors trainer Donte Ross said.
Ross is one of the Jessup Correctional Institution’s veteran inmates who has had the opportunity to work with service dogs in training through a partnership with Warrior Canine Connection. Eventually, the service dogs in training will become service dogs for wounded veterans.