Georgia inmates get job training while helping the blind

FORSYTH, Ga. -- A unique program at a Georgia prison is helping both inmates and the visually impaired.

Through the VISION Guide Dog Program at the Burruss Correctional Training Center in Forsyth, a medium-security prison, inmates help to train guide dogs that will be used by individuals who are blind or visually impaired while gaining training and job skills.

Those that graduate from the VISION Guide Dog Program receive various certifications from Central Georgia Technical College such as in Animal Healthcare Assistance, Animal Caretaking and Dog Grooming.

Cathy Pittman, program coordinator for the VISION Guide Dog Program, said that not only do the dogs that these offenders train go on to help blind people, but the inmates can walk away from the program with job skills that will help them to succeed once they are released.

Pittman said that this program also helps to reduce the recidivism rate, or rate of released inmates that re-offend, among those who participate in the program. She said that those who graduate from the program have a recidivism rate of less than 2 percent.

Pittman said that inmates who participate in the program also gain knowledge on how to better interact with others and gives them more patience.

Inmate Willis Ferguson has been training dogs in the program now for two years. He says it's helped him just as much as the dogs he's trained.

"It totally just changed everything that I thought about animals, I just can't say enough about how great it's been as far as me personally to take an animal and try to train it from a puppy to it's, you know we're only keeping for about a year and a half, you're going through the daily process of everything, and you know it's just a wonderful experience for me," Ferguson said.

Just this past year, Pittman said eight offenders graduated from the program. Since the program was kicked off at Burruss in 2008, Pittman said about 30 people have graduated from the program.