GWINNETT COUNTY, Ga. — Supporters of a popular program that connects inmates with rescue dogs are trying to save it from being suspended in Gwinnett County as the sheriff’s office works to make improvements at the jail to accommodate an increasing number of sick inmates.
Channel 2′s Gwinnett County Bureau Chief Matt Johnson spoke with a former inmate whose one of the people pushing for the program to stay.
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An online petition has picked up more than 1,000 signatures in hopes of keeping it from being suspended. Organizers within the program say they have until Dec. 15 to get the remaining dogs adopted by families.
“It was a great thing to be able to be a part of,” said Shane Hawkins, a former Gwinnett County inmate who is now a professional dog trainer and author.
Hawkins wrote the book “Troubled to Trained” and attributes his life turnaround to the Jail Dogs program he was a part of from 2015 until 2018.
“It was the program that helped kind of get me started on this journey in life I’m on now,” he said.
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For 13 years, the Society of Humane Friends of Georgia has helped build the program within the Gwinnett County Jail by helping inmates train rescue dogs so they can be adopted instead of euthanized.
Last week, the Gwinnett County Sheriff’s Office officials said they made the difficult decision to suspend the program. The space currently occupied by the Jail Dogs program is next to the jail hospital, and that space is needed to make improvements for a new place to accommodate mentally and chronically ill inmates.
“I think they need to be building more of those programs and not stopping them,” said Hawkins.
Gwinnett County Sheriff’s Office Chief Cleo Atwater says an estimated 73% increase in inmates who are mentally ill helped spark the decision to make changes in how they receive treatment.
“We are needing to make modifications to the unit where the Jail Dogs program is currently housed,” he said.
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Jail officials say they’re trying to relocate the program possibly until there’s space again to bring it back to Gwinnett County.
Hawkins and supporters of the Jail Dogs program are hoping for a miracle within the next couple of weeks.
“If it does stop, it’s going to be a lot harder to get it back up off the ground,” he said.
Information about the three remaining dogs in the program that are available for adoption can be found here.
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