After entering the Cook County Sheriff’s Tails of Redemption site, the check-in desk and limited personal items allowance is expected. For most people, everything is different once inside. This is a special place but not for the reason most people think.
Advancing through a number of doors, a final door opens revealing austere looking barracks and empty stretches of land surrounded by high fences topped with razor wire.
Before entering the building that houses the dogs, you see staff and inmates (known as clients), walking dogs on a grassy field.
The program pairs inmates with shelter dogs to provide obedience training and socialization to bolster adoption prospects. Client-trainers learn vocational and life skills increasing their chances of a successful post-incarceration experience.
“At the new Tails of Redemption facility located at the Cook County Jail’s Mental Health Treatment Center, we have grown from five kennels in Division 9, to a capacity of 33,” said Jerry Roman, program director. “It’s very noisy in there! They’re very excited because they’re going out for potty walks, they’ve all had morning breaks and training will start shortly.”
TOR’s early days
After Illinois closed six mental health facilities between 1985 and 2013 those in need were shifted to community-based care in an effort to cut costs. Corrections facilities like Cook County Jail became de facto mental health assistance facilities.
According to a University of Chicago Health Lab Roadmap Initiative study, persons encountering both the Cook County Jail and homeless service systems “spend an average of 60% of their combined services days during the study period in jail and the remaining 40% in shelter or outreach.”
Launched in 2018 by Cook County Sheriff Tom Dart, the TOR program pairs shelter dogs with clients for eight-week dog training initiatives that give new, life-changing opportunities to all concerned; animals, humans; even staff.
When complete, some dogs will become certified therapy dogs, ready to work at various agencies; others will be ready for adoption by waiting families.
The 2018 pilot program started with five dogs and client trainers and the animals were being adopted after approximately 12-14 weeks of training. Roman and his team noticed some of the original dogs and client trainers were moving faster than others.
After changing to a more flexible training schedule, faster-learning dogs were adopted sooner meaning a greater number of dogs could enter and move through the program.
“Early 2019 was when Sheriff Dart and some of the executives talked about training therapy dogs coming out of shelters and wanted us to do the research on it,” Roman said. “We introduced our very first dog in 2019.”
The first therapy dog, Joey, was brought from a Florida training program in 2019 and he was provided to an internal 911 center to support its staff’s health needs that year.
Training new trainers
Qualification for entry into the Tails of Redemption program for inmates is based on, first, a weekly population-wide screening done by the jail.
Persons with offenses that do not disqualify participation are listed in a report produced at the beginning of the week.
Next, jail personnel scrutinize those candidates for things like disciplinary issues and other considerations.
Further qualified candidates are then submitted for an in-depth background check confirmation.
“Then we go out and do an in-person interview every week,” Roman said. “Based on that information, those that are most suitable and that TOR would be the most beneficial for, are the individuals in custody that we invite to TOR. We transfer them in and we start working with them.”
An appointment to TOR, a desired assignment, results in some client trainers staying longer than others and some leaving the program sooner.
“We have a capacity for 20 [trainers]; we’ve been up to 15 or 16,” he said.”I don’t think we would shy away from adding space if we had them but the guys do come and go.”
What Roman notices
Overall, Director Roman said he has seen a lot of growth in clients who participate like learning to be social, becoming patient, gaining confidence in a newfound skill set, experiencing success and more.
“Some of these guys who have come in [to TOR] have never been or had to be responsible for themselves or an animal,” he said. “So [change] does take place without them even knowing. There’s a lot of structure and time. Some guys have been here longer; others shorter.”
“They start out sort of sloppy, kind of learning it and as they go and they build that confidence and practice it, just like anybody in sports or law enforcement where we’re practicing that same skill set over and over. We become very proficient and confident in that skill,” Roman said. “Our clients practice and move from starting out sloppy and end up maybe mentoring a new guy.”
TOR client participants work together as a team, he said.
“One day they’re cleaning, one day they’re training or another day they’re walking the dogs outside or doing laundry, dishes, sweeping, mopping and scrubbing kennels all while offering affection and enrichment; there’s a ton of responsibility. Everyone is participating in all aspects of the program,” Roman said.
Some client graduates have stayed connected to the TOR program.
“One guy who left here hadn’t changed a diaper when he was here making that task difficult but ended up helping other TOR people clean up messes their dogs made,” he said. “We ended up laughing about it. His case came to a conclusion, he’s back home, was able to get back on his feet and secured his CDL (truck driver’s licensing).”
The graduate has donated food, toys and treats to TOR and with another person who was discharged, came back to help Roman train dogs at a shelter that weren’t yet candidates, he said.
David A. and Maisie
“Maisie is about 8 months old and she’s been in the program about four or five months,” David A. said. “She’s getting trained to be a therapy dog in the CGC (Canine Good Citizen) training course. I’m teaching her the basics, so when she goes to advanced training, they’ll pick up where I left off. I’m basically reinforcing her training.”
After spending about six weeks training her, David said Maisie is close to leaving and believes she will be moving on sometime in April.
Training Maisie and learning about himself has been a two-way street, he said, noting she’s taught him a lot about himself.
“She’s taught me that I’m capable of doing good,” David said. “It’s great seeing when they first come in they’re scared to be on the leash and scared to be around us and then [later] seeing the progress we made; that she trusts me. I don’t know how to explain it. It just makes me feel good.”
Being told he’s a natural with dogs makes David feel successful and accomplished in his skill sets, he said.
“Yes ma’am; and yeah!” David said. “[These are] skills I didn’t know I had! I’ve never had a dog before until now.”
Over time spent in the program, he feels he’s changed in more ways than one, David said.
“Taking care of a dog and training them has taught me a sense of responsibility and that I can take care of things other than myself,” David added.
Most of all, David’s after-TOR plans and eventual release revolve around his home, he said.
“First, I gotta get back to my family, that’s for sure,” David said. “And I’m definitely more serious about adopting a dog now that I got my training in. Now that I’ve been here, I’ve considered working with animals a little bit more seriously. I’ll try to get into it but I want to be a truck driver or a welder when I get back home.”
“But I wouldn’t mind doing a little side-business dog walking,” he said after thinking a bit longer.
Human graduate support
Upon leaving the program, client graduates are presented with a certificate with post-program support plans already in place.
“When they leave TOR we have their contact information,” Roman said. “We have re-entry coordinators that are trying to ensure services are available to them whether it’s Alcoholics Anonymous or other treatment, jobs and other resources they connect them to when they’re out in the community. They’ll follow up; that care doesn’t stop.”
New women’s program
Last year, some of the female population began working with dogs in a smaller version of the program. Female and male inmates are not commingled.
“Women were excluded from TOR, so we created a version we can bring to them,” Roman said. “We can’t support a fully structured TOR program there but we bring the dogs, with the training staff, to them.”
The next group of female clients will be the second group trained, he said.
“The last group of women, right before the New Year, was the first group,” Roman said. “It went really well. The women were super-receptive and the staff there was really excited. I think we had a little graduation and their administration came out and took pictures. It was really cool and I’m very proud of that.”
TOR’s needs
Tails of Redemption is not funded by taxpayer dollars and is supported by sponsors, partners, donors and community-based funding, Roman said.
To ensure its financial health, the program has an Amazon wishlist of items needed to train program dogs that members of the public can purchase that are considered donations to the program.
Wishlisted items include toys, ear infection treatment wipes, dog puzzles, training treats, dog bowls and more.
“These are things we use constantly and those come at a cost,” he said. “When the general public or a community wants to be involved, that’s a fantastic way to do it. They’re directly supporting our work here.”
There are no benefits or reimbursements after a donation purchase, according to the Tails of Redemption donation page.
Liaising with partners
Veronica Grigorio, TOR’s new Animal Welfare Coordinator, is a liaison between the program and the shelters the dogs come from. While the dogs are housed at TOR they are property of their “home” shelters, she said.
“My role here is to make sure the dogs are getting to appointments and we’re scheduling things with the shelter(s) because the dogs are housed here but they are still property of the shelters we get them from,” Grigorio said.
Grigorio’s responsibilities range from ensuring all the dogs’ vaccines are up to date to watching for physical changes in the animals; essentially communicating with partner shelters when a dog needs medical attention, she said.
Once obedience, other training and an adopter is identified, finalization of the adoption process is done with the dog’s shelter, she said.
“Being able to be part of this program is the biggest thing,” Grigorio said. “I don’t think there’s anything like this program out there. We get to offer a say in the best way to handle situations [with a dog]. We work very well together as a team.”
TOR partners, volunteers
Three shelters, Chicago Animal Care and Control, Cicero Waggin Tails and the South Suburban Humane Society partner with Tails of Redemption to save dogs instead of euthanizing them. The program is 100% funded by community donations.
“All these dogs come with their own story,” he said. “Bella came to us from Harvey. She was abandoned in an apartment. Our special victims unit and animal crimes, with the help of Harvey, Cook County Animal Control and Cicero’s Waggin Tails shelter were able to get her out, brought her here, she was bathed and she’s with us.”
The facility also received a large bath station from an anonymous donor through Amazon that a volunteer professional groomer, who comes on Sundays, uses to train and provide instruction to clients on dog bathing, infection identification, ear and nail health and additional skills, Roman said.
“The instructor’s work with clients is at no charge to the Sheriff’s office or to the individuals in custody,” he said. “It’s another piece of enrichment that is in their field.”
TOR’s future
The future for Tails of Redemption continues to grow and find new ways to help people and dogs, according to Roman.
So far, 192 adoptions have been completed since the program started. The dog therapy training program is now in focus.
“I think in general, continuing our work with the therapy dogs, that’s gone really well by supporting communities and other law enforcement with the therapy dogs as well,” he said.
Exploring providing support/therapy dogs to Domestic Violence courts is also currently being tested.
“We started to do visits at the Domestic Violence Courts mostly for staff and some participants,” Roman said. “There is a completely different program, Victims Support Services; we partner with them quite a bit by sending out the dogs with Victim Support Services personnel who are survivors themselves of domestic violence.”
Working directly with survivors is what services personnel do; it’s (TOR) an additional form of support, he said.
“I would just say the future is very bright,” Roman said.
Such a worthwhile program–eveyone wins. I’m especially impressed that the program has expanded to include women and also women victims of domestic violence. Hats off to Sheriff Tom Dart and Director Jerry Roman for their vision, insight and patience to see this program, not only expand, but thrive.