Arkansas prison inmates, who may not be the most loving and obedient members of our society, have an opportunity to improve the quality of life inside the institutions with dogs. The Arkansas Department of Correction kicked off its Paws in Prison program on Thursday at the Tucker Unit in Jefferson County.
Selected inmates will be given the opportunity to become trainers of dogs rescued from animal shelters and pounds. The program involves inmates working with the dogs teaching them basic obedience skills and properly socializing the animals, making them more loving and adoptable.
Last year in Arkansas, hundreds of homeless dogs were euthanized. Dogs have been used for years to open up communications with the elderly in nursing homes and youth confined to juvenile correctional facilities.
The program is designed to help inmates develop skills necessary to support successful rehabilitation and reentry into society. At the same time, it’s an opportunity for the inmates to do something positive for the communities in the state.
The program will start in the Randall Williams Correctional Facility in Pine Bluff, the Maximum Security Unit at Tucker, the Ouachita River Correctional Unit in Malvern and the A.J. Hawkins Center for Women at Wrightsville. In states where similar programs operate, they have had a profound impact on inmates and staff.
Independent reporting for Pine Bluff & Jefferson County since 1879.
The ADC modeled its program after a similar one in the Missouri prison system, which recently adopted out its 500 dog.
Internet sting
The Drew Central High School principal was arrested at his Monticello home Thursday morning following allegations of sexual indecency with a child.
The allegations stem from an Internet sting operation in which an undercover Phoenix, Ariz., police officer posed as a 14-year-old old girl in an Internet chat room. The police officer said he was sent images over the Internet of a male, nude from the waist down, engaging in self-sexual gratification, according to an affidavit used as the basis for the arrest, and engaged in a sexually graphic conversation with the educator.
At the suspect’s first appearance hearing Thursday, Circuit Judge Bynum Gibson set a bond of $10,000 and issued an order for the principal, Steven Noble, not to have contact with any children.
The case can serve as warning for teens and others who may find information and images on the Internet they don’t anticipate.
Better late than …
When Alderman Irene Holcomb, senior member of the Pine Bluff City Council asks a question, Mayor Carl A. Redus Jr. has learned to pay attention.
Holcomb, Public Safety Committee chair, asked Redus Monday when he was going to name a chief for the Pine Bluff Fire and Emergency Services Department. The position has been vacant since mid-May when former Fire Chief Dannie Smith left to take a job in Texas.
Redus assured Holcomb the appointment would be made by the end of the year. The mayor previously set a Sept. 15 deadline for filling the post.
The last time we checked, nine individuals, including Deputy Chief Shauwn Howell, who has been serving as interim chief since May 13, had applied for the job.
At an Aug. 1 meeting of the committee, Redus said that he had narrowed down the pool of candidates to five and intended to further reduce the candidates to three finalists that week.
We suggest the mayor not disappoint Holcomb again. She has a long memory.