We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Candide Jones a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.
Candide, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. Let’s kick things off with your mission – what is it and what’s the story behind why it’s your mission?
Piedmont Animal Welfare Alliance (PAW Alliance) was formed to re-start the New Leash on Life (NLOL) prison dog-training program at Forsyth Correctional Center (FCC), a men’s minimum-security prison in Forsyth County, NC. NLOL is a NC Department of Adult Correctional state program that is currently in a handfull of N.C. minimum- and medium-security prisons in the state.
We are an all-volunteer nonprofit in Winston-Salem with a small board, great volunteers, and only a part-time contract worker who helps us with our bookkeeping.
Another nonprofit had run the program for a number of years, and I was originally with the other nonprofit, having helped start the program in 2009.
When that nonprofit pulled out unexpectedly in 2017, two other volunteer workers, Loretta Elliott, dog-trainer Louise Mowbray, and I decided that we must start a nonprofit ourselves to allow the program to continue
We raised funds for a year, had the help of a probono lawyer to wade through the maze of all the legalities, etc., and PAW Alliance was formed in early 2018. We restarted the program in May of 2018.
We have instructors who come in twice weekly from the Winston-Salem Dog Training Club to work with the men and dogs on a 10-week training protocol. The instructors choose dogs from area shelters with minor behavioral problems that may make it difficult for them to be adopted. We do not take truly aggressive dogs who would be dangerous to adopt into homes. We have had a bait dog in a dog-fighting ring who was a real challenge, being afraid of both dogs and men. She finally learned the confidence that comes with real love, and was successfully adopted into a home.
After 10 weeks, the dogs are housetrained, crate trained, obedience trained, and have some agility techniques (the agility is not the most important part, but we find it helpful with both unruly dogs (giving them focus) and shy dogs (giving them confidence).
The reason we felt compelled to create PAW Alliance, partner with the prison, and resurrect New Leash on Life is because it is such a redemptive program, for dogs and for “inmates,” whom we call simply “trainers.”
There are a number of religious programs at the prison, but ours is strictly secular. Redemption comes in many forms and we find this work the most redemptive we’ve participated in–for everyone, dogs, trainers, and all of us who volunteer with it.
We say redemptive because the men see themselves in these dogs who need help. Both humans and canines have had a hard life, many have been homeless, both have “behavioral” problems (obviously), and a great number had simply given up in having a happy life.
The dogs love the trainers. For many of the trainers, it’s the first unconditional love they’ve ever received. Likewise for the dogs.
It teaches the men patience, persistence, and the importance of positive praise. (Really important “P”s.)
Some of our dogs have had to go through the 10-week program twice, but they finally get it done. That’s redemption.
The national recidivism rate for state prisons ranges between 45 and 65%. In North Carolina, the average is around 45%.
Studies show that prison dog-training programs lower recidivism rates of inmates importantly, though different studies show different amounts, with some studies suggesting between 6 to 47%, others 38 – 46%, and so on. Unscientific general consensus is that, as opposed to the national and NC rates listed above, that in general many prison dog-training programs have a recidivism rate of between 6 and 9%.
Our New Leash on Life program at FCC has, at least since 2015, a 0% recidivism rate. Zero.
A former trainer was a member of our board of directors, and remains a good friend. A number of former trainers have kept in touch, and occasionally have lunch or dinner with volunteers. Some have started businesses, and as one former life-long drug dealer told us, “I’m not making as much money as I used to. But I have a painting business, four employees, a good truck, a house, and I’m happier than I’ve ever been.”
That’s redemption.
Seeing a dog that was deemed too anxious and reactive to ever be successfully adopted (he was adopted and brought back a number of times) is–granted, with the help of a behaviorist–so happy and joyful in his home.
For many of us, dealing with people we may have formerly thought of as frightening, bad, “other,” etc., we now know that many of these men were unlikely to have a fair chance at life from the moment they were born. We have gotten to know them, we all have gotten to trust one another, respect one another, look for the best in one another. That’s redemption, too, for me and all our volunteers.
THAT is our mission. Our slogan is “Standing Up for Underdogs,” and our sub-slogan is “Because Everyone Deserves a Second Chance.”
(There’s an intereesting study that looks at benefits of dog-training program in prison. It’s very limited, since it is not a broad study, but it’s worthy of a look. https://lsj.washington.edu/sites/lsj/files/documents/research/a_new_leash_on_life-_benefits_of_dog_training_programs_in_prisons_-_sarah_leslie.pdf
We were shut down at the prison during COVID, and felt a bit useless, but then starting to investigate domestic violence and its many tentacles. We learned that 71% of pets in a home with domestic violence are also abused; that a huge percentage of victims stay with their abuser to protect their pets, and because the abuser uses the animals as bargaining tools, etc. “If you leave, I’ll kill the dog.” “You cannot take that cat. It’s mine.” “If you try to leave with the animal, I’ll kill you both,” etc.
If a victim DOES manage to escape with the pet(s), if they don’t have a relative’s or friend’s place to safely stay, they find that, currently, most DV shelters don’t allow pets. So they live in their car, if they were lucky enough to get one, or they become homeless, or they return to their abuser.
So we created A New Start In Life and partnered with Family Services, Forsyth, which run the local DV shelter in Winston-Salem. We also have connections and understandings with the W-S PD and the Forsyth County Sheriff’s Department, who know our services. If someone gets out, and either files a restraining order or actually gets into the DV shelter here, we provide care for theri animals, including medical care, foster homes, toys, treats, food, bedding, and all other needs.
When they get out of the shelter, find safe lodging of their own, they’re reunited with their pets.
These are both very expensive programs, as we supply all equipment, food, materials, medical care, etc,. for both programs. We receive no money from United Way or other local, county, or state programs,. We’re completely dependent on public support.
Both our New Leash on LIfe and our New Start in Life are redemption. For us ALL.
That’s what motivates us. That’s why we exist.
As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?
I am one of a band of people who work together to try to bring social justice and animal welfare to our small part of the world. Professionally, I have done everything from running restaurants, being a professional cook, being a writer, editor, and restaurant critic for a number of magazines and newspapers. I have published a children’s book. With a master’s degree in literature, I have also managed and been assistant director of Wake Forest University Press, an academic publishing house that is the premier publisher of Irish poetry in North Carolina. Some of these overlapped. For example, I was a contract restaurant reviewer and food feature writer at the same time I was steering the press and published a children’s book.
But my heart has always been drawn to the liminal. I’ve always been interested in what happens at the edges, rather than the center, of society.
I have been drawn to community work for a long time, working for animal rescues, starting a yearly event for a crisis intervention nonprofit that has gone on now for over 30 years.
“Privilege is invisible to those who have it,” former editorial writer Donald Kaul once wrote decades ago. That has always stuck with me.
We who have the privilege of being simply normal people and treated as such need to reach out to those who do not. This is VERY different from the concept and activity of “noblesse oblige,” that of doing FOR from a position of power.
We must remember we are doing with… not FOR.
The people we at PAW Alliance work with, whether prison trainers or domestic violence survivors, teach US and help us understand the world as much as we may help them.
No one lives in a vacuum. I’m proud of what PAW Alliance does, and it exists only because of a band of sisters and brothers who all believe in social justice, in animal welfare, and that we are ALL a part of the same world, working together to try at least not to make it a worse one.
We often hear about learning lessons – but just as important is unlearning lessons. Have you ever had to unlearn a lesson?
The greatest lesson that I and many others who are important parts of PAW Alliance is that it is not “we and they” or “us and them”. It’s just we.
How’d you meet your business partner?
First, we are not a business, per se. We’re a mission-driven social-justice and animal-welfare nonprofit. We do have a lot of business headaches, though, such as figuring out how to pay our bills. We have two expensive programs, and are dependent upon public support.
In comparison with other animal-welfare nonprofits, we’re relatively tiny. BUT we are doing BIG things. We’re the only animal-welfare group in our community that is also equally social justice.
I met one of my founding co-partners when we both volunteered in A New Leash on Life program at the FCC when it was run by another animal nonprofit we both were associated with. She was one of our instructors who worked with the trainers and men, and I worked with the men on their daily journals, which reveal both their progress with their dogs and, increasingly, their thoughts and emotions as they move forward.
Our second co-founder adopted a dog from us, and was very impressed and enthusiastic about our NLOL program. She gradually became our adoption counselor, a volunteer position, and the three of us formed a strong bond.
When the first nonprofit unexpectedly and suddenly pulled out of the program, the three of us decided to try to form a nonprofit of our own, which we did.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.paw-alliance.org
- Instagram: @pawalliance336
- Facebook: @paw-alliance
Image Credits
Volunteer Pictures Logo by Jamie Cheshire