Mission

The Prison Pet Partnership Program rescues and trains homeless dogs to provide service dogs for persons with disabilities and operates a boarding and grooming facility to provide vocational education for women inmates.

The Prison Pet Partnership Program began in 1982 as part of Tacoma Community College’s inmate education program. The Program became an independent Washington nonprofit corporation on May 30, 1990, and is registered with the IRS as a 501c3.
The Program’s facility is located on the grounds of the Washington Corrections Center for Women in Gig Harbor, Washington. The Program is governed by a volunteer Board of Directors. The day-to-day operations are the responsibility of an Executive Director, a Training Coordinator, and a Vocational Education Coordinator with support provided by a Program Assistant. Inmate employees support the boarding kennel, the grooming service, and dog training.

Core Values

• We value compassion and respect for people and animals.
• We value commitment to service.
• We value education and growth.
• We value building partnerships in a community.

The Program teaches boarding and grooming skills to women inmates so they can find gainful employment in the pet industry upon release.

The Program works with local animal shelters to select homeless dogs which are good candidates for becoming service dogs to provide independence, self-confidence and mobility for persons with disabilities.

Under the guidance of the Program’s Training Coordinator, inmates train service dogs which will be matched with persons with disabilities through team training and on-going assistance.

The Prison Pet Partnership Program has an annual budget of $212,000. The State of Washington, through the Department of Corrections, provides $35,000 a year for vocational education and materials. Thirty-nine percent of the Program’s income is revenue from the boarding kennel operation. The remainder of the Program’s income (45 percent) comes from donations and grants. All donations to the Program are tax deductible.

Dogs brought into the Program for service dog training which are unable to meet the strenuous physical and psychological demands of service dog work, are placed in loving homes as “paroled pets,” or as therapy dogs. The Program also coordinates with the drug detection dog training program at McNeil Island Penitentiary so that dogs with special talents for either law enforcement work or service dog work are given every opportunity to succeed.

Program volunteers play a valuable role in training service dogs by taking the dogs out of the prison setting to acquaint them with the sights and sounds of the world in they will ultimately live and work.

While in training to become a service dog, these once homeless dogs give unconditional love to the inmates who train them, care for them, and house them in their rooms at night.

For more information, view our About and History pages.