Dog-training program launched in Maryland prisons

Appointed inmates at Maryland prisons will train service dogs for wounded and disabled veterans, according to officials at the Department of Public Safety and Correctional Services on Monday morning. Two dozen chosen inmates will train 12 dogs to turn lights on and off, retrieve objects, and learn basic obedience, according to officials. Dogs will reportedly arrive at the prisons sometime in August.

America’s VetDogs, a non-profit organization working with Maryland prisons to set up the training program, brought several guide dogs to the prison with the program’s announcement on Monday. Terry Dorsey, a 48-year-old U.S. Army veteran incarcerated in the Hagerstown prison on a drug charge, views the program as a way for him to give back to the community. “I’m trying to make a lot of change,” he said. “If I can do it in here, I can do it on the outside.”