From 2015 to 2025, CWAC operated programs in state prisons to implement inmate handler training. Our programs pre-trained rescue dogs before they were paired with their future veteran handlers.

We built successful partnerships with Utah State Prison Women’s Correctional Facility in Salt Lake City, Utah, Warm Springs Correctional Center in Carson City, Nevada, Idaho State Correctional Institution in Kuna, Idaho, and Northern Nevada Correctional Center in Carson City, Nevada.

Our prison programs were designed to give inmates industry knowledge and vocational skills that aligned with correctional programming expectations and requirements. We provided all training, resources, guidance, and handbooks so each inmate could confidently train rescue dogs.

We established our first prison program at the Utah Women’s Correctional Facility in Draper, Utah. There, we taught female inmates to organize their schedules to ensure proper care for the dogs and to attend bi-weekly training classes led by our staff members at the prison.

In 2018, we expanded to the Idaho Correctional Institution in Orofino. Originally a state school and mental health facility, the institution became home to a successful dog training program we established. Through that program, we provided dogs not only to veterans in our Utah program but also to veterans across Northern Idaho and Northern Nevada.

Our third and most recent prison program operated at Northern Nevada Correctional Center in Carson City, Nevada, under our Reno trainer, Seamus. That program ran until it transitioned to the Duffield Foundation’s Liberty Dogs.