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October 23, 2025
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Media inquiries contact:
Jenn Truxall, jenn.truxall@drc.ohio.gov
ODRC highlights animal shelter partnerships during 'Adopt-a-Dog' Month
(COLUMBUS, Ohio) – To celebrate National Adopt a Shelter Dog Month, the Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Correction (ODRC) is highlighting dog training programs in correctional facilities statewide. These initiatives allow incarcerated adults to train adoptable shelter dogs, offering hope, teaching responsibility, and giving them a way to give back to their community.
Fourteen of ODRC’s prisons have programs that pair incarcerated adults with dogs from local shelters. Participants are responsible for daily care, structure, and basic obedience training, typically for six to eight weeks. While the dogs become more house-trained and appealing to potential adopters, it is often the trainers who experience the most profound transformation. At Madison Correctional Institution, this program is known as the “Fresh Start Training Program” and pairs incarcerated individuals with dogs from the Humane Society of Madison County.
Shelters also see the benefits. “This program is really great because we’re over capacity and this gives us a place for the dog to be housed besides in a kennel in a hallway,” said HSMC Executive Director Meg Werner. “Dogs that are jumpy or have trouble listening come back to the shelter as a totally new dog.”
Mike Fisher, Warden of Madison Correctional Institution, added: “Programs like these change the atmosphere inside a facility, and we see real transformation when incarcerated adults take part in it. They value the responsibility of caring for these dogs, and that shows in how they conduct themselves day-to-day.”
 “Hope and restorative justice programs are necessary for rehabilitation,” said ODRC Director Annette Chambers-Smith. “These programs give the people in our facilities a reason to get up every day and do something that matters. Training a dog takes compassion, patience, and consistency, and those skills are best learned with hands-on experience. The dogs give them purpose, and that purpose makes the facilities safer for everyone.”
Programs like these operate under different names at correctional facilities statewide, including partnerships between:
List as of March 2025.
National Adopt a Shelter Pet Month recognizes the importance of pet adoption and the life-changing bonds animals can create. For ODRC, these animal programs provide hope to those under our care and show that second chances matter for both people and pets.
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